By Allison Klein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 8, 2008

The D.C. police department's plan to hire more officers could be jeopardized by proposed cuts to the agency's fiscal 2009 budget, Chief Cathy L. Lanier said yesterday.

In a letter to D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), Lanier flagged concerns about a $2.5 million cutback proposed by the Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary, which he heads.

The proposed police budget is $504 million.

The reduction would "slow down our neighborhood crime-fighting efforts," Lanier wrote.

Some council committees spent days last week making changes to the $5.7 billion citywide budget submitted by the administration of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) for the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

This week, agencies and departments are lobbying for reinstatement of some of the funds.

Mendelson called the chief's contention "ridiculous" but said he had not seen a copy of her letter. Lanier has adequate money in her budget to hire officers, he said.

"It doesn't affect her ability to hire more officers," he said. "This is game-playing on their part."

Lanier, who has made it a priority to increase the number of officers, said she needs the money to bring the department to 4,200 members by October 2009, the number authorized by the council in 2006.

"I fear this . . . will have a detrimental impact on my ability to run the most effective police department possible," Lanier wrote.

The cutbacks are based on the theory that money can be saved because the department will have a number of vacancies waiting to be filled during the year; during that time, the payroll can be lighter. The department has about 3,950 officers.

Mendelson said that even without the $2.5 million, the department would be getting 1.2 percent more money than in the last fiscal year. He also questioned whether Lanier was really going to use it to increase the size of the force.

"They want the money to reprogram it for whatever initiative," he said. "They want the money to use it any way they want to."