L.A. Council Authorizes 107 Non-Patrol Vehicles for $13 Million Ahead of 2028 Olympics

Source: The Sports Examiner ↗

The Los Angeles City Council city council approved .042 million in debt financing to buy 107 non-patrol vehicles for its police department’s Olympic operations, drawing a sharp dissent over the terms of Los Angeles’s no-cost Games pledge.

They voted 8-3 on Sept. 10 to authorize the purchase for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games. The vehicles are non-patrol units intended to support Games operations; the council simultaneously asked city staff to study alternative acquisition options for a separate LAPD request covering 300 additional patrol vehicles.

That second request carries its own price tag. According to council member Eunisses Hernandez, LAPD’s preferred option is $23.25 million to purchase 300 SUVs, with approximately $26,000 in emergency equipment upfitting per vehicle adding another $7.8 million. Combined with the $13 million approved, Hernandez put the potential vehicle-related total above $44 million.

“We were promised a no-cost Olympics,” Hernandez said. “Today, we’re being asked to move forward more than $13 million in debt-financed spending … LAPD says there are no other existing City or department funding sources available to cover them in the timeline they say is required. So, the solution is for the City to finance it. And that’s extremely concerning, especially because we know this isn’t where the spending ends.”

The 300-vehicle question returns to the Budget and Finance Committee before coming back to the full council. Hernandez voted no, as did council member Nithya Raman. “You cannot tell Angelenos they are getting a no-cost Olympics and then come back, expense by expense, and tell us the City has to pay because the Olympics are coming,” Hernandez said. “That is exactly how a no-cost Olympics becomes a very expensive Olympics.”