The city of Los Angeles is facing a record level of liability payouts and is considering a proposal to borrow tens of millions of dollars to help cover the costs.

In September, City Controller Kenneth Majia warned that the city is going “broke,” and burning through its reserve funds.

A report from the City Administrative Officer found departments are at least $215 million over budget this fiscal year and that settlements from lawsuits against the city, including the police department, are a big part of that. 

On this week’s “In Focus SoCal,” host Tanya McRae sits down with Spectrum News’ Kate Cagle to discuss this issue.

Cagle said that many lawsuits against the LAPD stem not just from civilians but from officers themselves. 

“The attorney that I interviewed for the story who has represented LAPD officers said that you know, there’s been a problem from the top putting a lot of pressure on cops to avoid sick time, taking time off. And of course, that has resulted in lawsuits there,” said Cagle. “This is a problem that the new incoming chief, Chief McDonnell, has acknowledged and promised to address as part of his new administration.”

Another issue affecting Los Angeles and other cities is copper wire theft and vandalism.

It’s been a growing issue since the early 2000s, with the FBI calling it a threat to critical U.S. infrastructure.

These thefts have left neighborhoods across Southern California without street lighting and internet service.

McRae sat down with LA City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez about the issue and to learn what the city has been doing to prevent these thefts. She said it’s costing taxpayers millions of extra dollars to restore service and to replace the copper wire. 

“It’s having the resources and the capacity of our city departments to be able to go and do that work. And that’s also the critical challenge that we find ourselves in, is because we don’t just have infinite resources to reinvest in that restoration,” said Rodriguez. “And so we’ve been investing in the hardening of targets so once the copper wire has been restored, we have been like, for example, in my district, hardening a lot of those installations because a lot of this infrastructure is rather old.”

The City Council is also working with the LAPD’s Heavy Metal Task Force, which was formed at the beginning of the year.

Deputy Chief Michael Oreb, commanding officer of the LAPD Operations Central Bureau, heads up the task force.

“We’ve arrested 112 individuals for felony crimes, an additional 42 for various misdemeanor crimes, and we ended up with over six guns that were also taken into custody during this period,” said Oreb. 

Send us your thoughts to InFocusSoCal@charter.com and watch at 11 a.m. on Saturdays and 9 a.m. on Sundays.