LAPD Wants 300 Olympic Cars. I'd Fund Shelter Beds First.

Researchers estimate close to 6,000 unsheltered people live within a mile of the venues those new cars would patrol.

Three hundred new police vehicles, at around $30 million, would go on the city's books for the summer of 2028. That's what the Los Angeles Police Department has asked for. The Budget and Finance Committee of the Los Angeles City Council took the request up in August. It sent the request back for more information rather than voting it through, LAist reported.

I'd leave it parked. And I'd keep it parked until the same Olympic footprint comes back to the council with a housing number attached.

Close to 6,000 unsheltered people live within a mile of the venues those cars would patrol, by researchers' estimate, the outlet reported. Local officials say the people inside the security zones will probably have to move.

Buy the fleet now, move the people later. Same square mile.

The facts under this column are LAist's reporting and the department's own figures to the council. The verdict is mine.

We ran the division: about $100,000 a vehicle. The 300 cars aren't the first ask, either. The 2026-2027 city budget already carries $13 million for Games vehicles that don't patrol. Those are trucks, prisoner transport vans and unmarked cars for investigators — 107 of them, roughly $121,000 each.

The $30 million isn't the big number

Here's where my reading turned. In May the department sent the council an estimate of its personnel costs for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. They could exceed $730 million. Nearly half of that would go to outside agencies brought in to cover staffing gaps.

Against that, the cars are a rounding item. Which is exactly why approving them first, on their own, is the wrong order of business.

The Games are sold as privately funded and free to taxpayers. LA28, the private organizing committee, left police costs out of a budget north of $7 billion. It's counting on Washington.

The Trump administration has put $1 billion toward Games security, split among the many cities with venues. How much of it lands in Los Angeles isn't clear yet. Police Chief Jim McDonnell wrote to the committee in July. He doesn't expect federal dollars to cover these 300 vehicles, he said, because he expects that money to go toward deploying officers.

Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, who chairs the Budget and Finance Committee, told LAPD officials she isn't comfortable with the price, per LAist:

"I'm incredibly uncomfortable with spending $30 million on cars, and the excuse being used that we need them for the Games, when the Games are going to be a month long."

Now the strongest thing the other side has, and it's real. A Games scattered across a metropolis needs rolling stock. The department says these vehicles won't permanently grow the fleet. Once the Games end, the new cars replace old ones.

Read honestly, that isn't an Olympic purchase. It's an accelerated replacement cycle wearing an Olympic jersey. If the cars need replacing on their own merits, defend them on the replacement schedule — against resurfacing, against shelter, against everything else the general fund is short on.

Delay costs something too, and I'll name it. Order 300 vehicles late and you're negotiating from weakness. I'll take that risk over signing a purchase order nobody can yet place inside a total security bill.

The committee asked the city administrative officer for the financial effects, the ways to pay, and whether other California law enforcement agencies could lend vehicles instead. When that report comes back, I want one more line in it. How many interim housing beds does $30 million buy within a mile of a venue?

Source: laist.com, retrieved September 3, 2026.