The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) plans a "massive deployment" of officers for Michael Jackson's memorial next Tuesday morning, it was reported on Friday.
The local KFI radio, citing unnamed sources within the LAPD, reported that more than 1,400 officers -- two shifts of at least 30 officers plus three supervisors from each of the department's 25 patrol stations -- have been asked to volunteer for duty Monday and Tuesday related to the Jackson memorial service at Los Angeles Staples Center.
But the LAPD refused to give details. "We never give out statistics" on staffing plans, said Officer Norma Eisenman of the LAPD's Media Relations office, when asked for comment.
Officers at several stations and a senior department official told KFI that such a massive deployment usually takes weeks or months to organize, but will have to be in place within a few days, and could leave the department temporarily "stretched to dangerously low levels".
The station's sources also said that all training classes had been canceled for the two days and every sworn officer, including plainclothes detectives, had been ordered to report in uniform for possible assignment to crowd-control duties.
KFI reported that officers will be paid overtime for the duty.
The department did not reveal how much money the deployment will cost, but Councilwoman Jan Perry noted that funds for special events is built into the LAPD's budget.
She said the city will access a special fund set aside for extraordinary events to pay for the security costs associated with the memorial tribute.
"It's not the first, nor will it be the last time our police department is called upon to make and execute the necessary plans for special events of this magnitude," Perry said.
Organizers of the memorial tribute announced that only those who receive the 17,000 free tickets to attend the memorial at Staples Center and the Nokia Theatre will be allowed into the area, which will be cordoned off by police.
There will be a "hard closure," meaning no one without a ticket and wristband will be allowed into the area of Flower Street to the east, Olympic Boulevard to the north, Pico Boulevard to the South and Blaine Street to the West, said LAPD Assistant Chief Earl Paysinger.
Jackson, 50, was pronounced dead June 25 at Ronald Reagan Medical Center at the University of California in Los Angeles, about two hours after he collapsed at his rented Holmby Hills estate.
Jackson was in Los Angeles rehearsing for 50 sold-out concerts in London.
It was unclear where Jackson would be buried, although reports resurfaced Thursday that the singer would be buried at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills.
There was also a lingering question about who would be footing the bill for the memorial service.
(Xinhua News Agency July 4, 2009)
