Los Angeles is being policed with half a team — and the city’s top cop says the consequences will be brutal as the world descends on LA for the FIFA World Cup later this year and the 2028 Summer Olympics.

Despite a population topping four million — with tens of thousands of active criminals — the city has just 8,700 police officers.

It’s a staffing level LAPD’s Chief Jim McDonnell compares to taking to the baseball field with four players instead of nine.

“If you have a baseball team with nine fielders on the field, we have four,” McDonnell told The California Post. “No matter how good the players are, they’re going to get fatigued.”

McDonnell says Los Angeles needs 12,000 officers just to function safely — a staggering 38% increase, or roughly 3,300 more cops — as the city prepares to host two of the biggest global events on Earth.

“I would start with 12,000 [officers] and I think if we were able to get that we would be pretty healthy. We would be able to have the opportunity to reinvigorate some of the units that have been downsized,” he said.

Instead, the City Council has approved funding to hire up to 410 officers this fiscal year, a move one senior department source described as “a drop in the bucket.”

The staffing crisis has been years in the making. In 2019, LAPD had about 10,000 officers. Today, it’s down more than 1,300, even as crime, homelessness and public disorder strain the city’s resources.

McDonnell, who took over as chief in 2024, warned that running so lean during the World Cup and Olympics will come at a steep human cost.

“I’m confident we’ll handle whatever comes our way,” he said. “But it’s going to come at a cost — exhaustion, forced overtime, officers not getting time with their families. That’s what hurts morale and readiness.”

Money, not politics, is now the biggest obstacle.

“This isn’t an anti-police issue,” McDonnell said. “It’s a funding issue.”

LA began the budget year with a $1 billion deficit, and the LAPD — which has the largest slice of the city budget — has absorbed repeated cuts.

Another projected shortfall in the 2026–27 fiscal year threatens to make matters worse.

The squeeze comes even as applications to join the force are up 27%, according to McDonnell — meaning the department has interest, but not the cash, to rebuild.

Mayor Karen Bass and McDonnell scored a modest win earlier this year when council members approved the new hires. But the relief may be short-lived.

Beyond manpower, McDonnell said modern threats are stretching the department in ways few imagined a decade ago.

“The cyber threat, the threat from drones, the inability to protect mass gatherings from drone attacks — those weren’t even on the radar 10 or 15 years ago,” he said. “Now they’re very real.”

Despite the strain, McDonnell said the department has delivered results, pointing to crime drops across the board.

“We were down in every crime category,” he said. “Homicides dropped to about 230, taking us back to 1966 levels.”

Still, with global events looming and staffing far below where it needs to be, McDonnell warned the margin for error is shrinking fast.

“Every day for us is game day,” he said. “We don’t get a practice day.”

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