Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers are blasting Chief Michel Moore for what they see as weak leadership during the race riots that engulfed the city in recent months, according to a new LAPD union survey obtained by Breitbart News.
An overwhelming majority of rank-and-file officers expressed a lack of confidence in Moore, saying that he acted as a “politician” by supporting the protesters and failed to exhibit “strong leadership.” The survey, which was conducted by the L.A. Police Protective League, also found that officer morale continues to plummet, with more than a third of cops thinking of leaving the department.
The results come as the LAPD enacts budgetary cuts across multiple divisions in the wake of the left’s “defund the police” movement. The department will stop responding to traffic collisions, and will downsize its homicide and robbery divisions, following the city’s decision to defund the department to the tune of $150 million.
In the survey, 86.3 percent of respondents said that they don’t feel Moore supports them, with some saying that they lost respect for the department’s top officer when he took a knee in June to show solidarity with Black Lives Matter.
“Many called for the resignation of the chief of police,” the survey said, citing his “cowering to protestors by kneeling” and his failure to defend officers to the media.
The survey found that 89.8 percent of respondents felt that LAPD command staff failed to demonstrate strong leadership during the riots, with many cops saying that leaders acted as “puppets” to local politicians, including Mayor Eric Garcetti (D). Nearly 55 percent of cops said they don’t have the adequate equipment to do their jobs.
Nine out of ten respondents said they would retire from the department if they could, with 38.9 percent of cops saying they are thinking of leaving the LAPD for other agencies.
The overall morale of LAPD officers has sunk to near rock bottom. When asked to rank morale on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the lowest, half of all respondents ranked it at 1.
Moore responded to the survey by saying that he was committed to “doing a better job.”
“First, I mean to expressly acknowledge that I hear you, see you, and am committed to doing a better job as your Chief,” he said in a letter to rank-and-file cops obtained by Breitbart News. “Second, I apologize to those of you who I failed by my actions or words. I believed in my heart each action was the right thing to do. However, there are things that I wish I could go back in time and do over. But life doesn’t work that way.”
While Moore said that the department is responding to complaints by issuing more protective gear, he also warned that cops will have to do their jobs with fewer resources.
“We will reorganize and prioritize what this Department will do to meet budget cutbacks and strive to provide for public safety with a much smaller workforce.”
As Breitbart News reported, the LAPD is expected to see retirements soar in January, which would deal a blow to a department already struggling to maintain the peace and to protect its own officers from attacks. Sources said cops are waiting until the new year to retire because a new contract will pay them 100 percent of their sick time. Prior to that, officers only received 50 percent of sick time.
Follow David Ng on Twitter @HeyItsDavidNg. Have a tip? Contact me at dng@breitbart.com
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