Committee approves LAPD youth and cadet programs report, asks for follow-up on hiring and funding

The Committee on Public Safety voted to note and file a Los Angeles Police Department report on March 5 that described the department’s cadet, POP, PAM and ECOP youth programs and recommended steps to expand recruitment and retention.

The report, presented by Commander Yusel Espinoza of the Los Angeles Police Department’s youth programs office, summarized program histories, participation numbers, funding sources and proposals to preserve a pipeline from cadet programs into civil and sworn positions. Committee members voted in favor of filing the report after brief discussion and requests for additional implementation details.

Commander Yusel Espinoza told the committee the cadet program — formerly the Police Explorer Program — “was established in 1962” and is intended to expose youth to leadership, ethics and public-safety careers. She said the program currently consists of 26 cadet posts across 21 geographic divisions, with additional posts in traffic, police facilities, USC and Los Angeles International Airport. She also said a recent cadet leadership class graduated 163 participants and that a class beginning March 1 started with about 220 students.

The presentation described several related programs: POP (a semester program transferable to University of California campuses), PAM (a magnet high-school academy operated with the Los Angeles Unified School District) and ECOP (a 2017 program for older youth). Espinoza said funds for cadet activities come from the department’s budget and from donations and partner institutions for specific programs; the POP/PAM classes receive college funding when administered by community colleges.

The report said ECOP has enrolled about 110 people since 2017, with 19 active participants now; roughly a third of ECOP participants have moved into career roles with public agencies, according to the presentation. Espinoza described a staffing and budget constraint that paused background-investigation processing and hiring in April–May 2024, leaving some applicant and program hires frozen until city human-resources decisions are resolved.

Committee members pressed staff for specifics about funding, conversion rates to paid positions and options to retain participants who age out at 18. Espinoza and other presenters described ideas under consideration: expand the ECOP slot count above the current 60-per-cycle cap, place youth-program staffing under a commander-level office to coordinate outreach, and allow limited civil career pathways inside the department for participants who do not become sworn officers.

Member comments praised the programs’ educational effects and asked staff to return with a budgetary and implementation plan showing what it would take to expand slots and resume paused hiring. The committee voted to file the report. The committee did not adopt additional legislative action at the meeting; members asked staff for follow-up materials to guide possible future changes.

The committee recorded the vote to file the report as approved by a 5-0 majority.