When Raman first ran for office four years ago, his public safety campaign platform called for the Los Angeles Police Department to become a “much smaller and more specialized force.” On several levels, that change is partially underway. Since she took office, the department's size has decreased from about 9,800 to her 8,957.

While serving on the City Council, Raman said he has worked to shift duties away from the LAPD, including hiring unarmed responders to interact with homeless Angeleno residents. These efforts will help ensure the department focuses on violent crime, she said.

Mr. Raman voted for Mr. Bass's first annual budget last year, which called for hiring enough officers to restore the LAPD to 9,500 police officers.

As for the bigger question: Does the LAPD need more officers or fewer? –Raman said, “I don't know.”

“I'll say the same thing I said the last time I ran for office: I don't know how many police officers the city actually needs. How police officers will be distributed. It's not clear what that is,” she said in an interview. “And I work with the LAPD all the time, but … I don't have any significant operational insight into how they work.”

Weaver, who works closely with the Los Angeles Police Department as city attorney, offered a much different assessment, saying the city urgently needs more police. He said the lack of police officers is hampering the agency's ability to respond to both serious crimes and low-level neighborhood problems, such as out-of-control party houses in the Hollywood Hills.

“When 10,000 people took the oath [officers], we had the ability to address quality of life issues. Right now, the Los Angeles Police Department has essentially gone from 911 to 911, and these issues are affecting people at home, and there's no one to deal with them. ”

Baronian took a similar position, saying police in the area need to respond more quickly to property crimes, especially robberies and burglaries. “We also want to make sure the right people are hired and have sufficient training to understand potentially problematic situations. [and can] De-escalate,” he said.

Weaver and Baronian recently attended a campaign event in Griffith Park where they criticized Raman for voting against a four-year police pay package negotiated by the mayor last year. Both candidates said these raises are needed to prevent police officers from leaving Los Angeles for jobs elsewhere.

Baronian, 41, said the raise was “reasonable.”

“Inflation is clearly very high, between 4% and 6%. [yearly] “A raise is not actually an increase in salary,” he said. “It’s a cost of living adjustment.”

Raman defended his vote against the police raise, saying he warned last summer that the deal was not fiscally responsible and would do little to improve jobs. Since her vote, she said the LAPD's pay increases have created a significant budget shortfall and put other city services at risk.

At the same time, she said recruitment efforts are still slow.

“So far, the data is proving me right,” Raman said.