LADWP seeks – The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is asking the City Council to create an armed police force for utility sites, arguing its current guards can’t detain suspects, stop crimes in progress, or carry firearms. The move comes as copper thefts drive stre
Los Angeles has a familiar sound these days: the slow grind of repairs that can’t keep up with what gets ripped out and sold.
Now the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is asking City Hall for something far more forceful than its current security approach—its own armed police force to protect vulnerable utility equipment. street lighting. and critical infrastructure. In a May 21 report. the department says its contracted and unarmed guards aren’t cutting it. pointing to gaps in authority that it argues leave crimes to continue unchecked.
“They lack the authority to detain or arrest suspects. intervene in crimes in progress. conduct searches. or carry firearms for enforcement purposes. ” the report says. The department adds that delays from the “observe and report” model hinder timely intervention. reduce investigative effectiveness. and contribute to repeat victimization of LADWP facilities.
Under the current system. the department says an officer who sees someone cutting a fence or stripping copper from a transformer can do little beyond warning and making a 911 call. The proposal would change that. If approved, LADWP’s officers would be able to carry firearms, make arrests, and investigate thefts. The plan calls for 20 to 50 sworn officers to begin, hired over a five-year period, along with support staff. The proposal is scheduled to be discussed Thursday by the City Council.
That request lands as streetlights across the city have faced a growing backlog—and copper theft has been blamed as a key driver. The city logged 14,328 electronic streetlight service requests in 2018, Bureau of Street Lighting data shows. Requests have tripled since then, climbing to 46,079 in 2024, the last full year of available data.
Mayor Karen Bass’ office said in March that copper thefts are a leading cause of streetlight outages, and that repairs have been backlogged for months.
The thefts are also feeding off a wider market. Prices for copper are at an all-time high. driven by major supply disruptions in Indonesia and Chile and soaring demand from artificial intelligence data centers and electric grid infrastructure. Thieves typically cash in at recycling centers, where the metal can fetch up to $5.30 per pound.
LADWP says the scale is not small. Theft losses alone exceed $1 million annually, it reports. Last year, the City Council approved a program offering up to $5,000 for information in metal and wire theft cases.
The department’s pitch is a financial one, too. Changing the structure would not be simple. Establishing a new police force would require changing the city charter, which means voters would weigh in during the November midterm elections. Authorities would also need state legislative approval.
Officials estimate the police department would cost $9.7 million over three years, with up to $6 million annually for staffing. They argue those costs are less than what DWP already spends each year on private security contractors and unarmed staff security—$46 million combined.
Any costs over that amount, the plan says, would be paid for by DWP customers.
The spending-watchdog response has been blunt. Timothy O’Connor. executive director for the Los Angeles Office of Public Accountability. said his office is not convinced the agency can keep long-term costs from creeping upward. or that the new force would offset enough expenses to justify the program.
He said the proposed force—“a few dozen officers”—would be too small to fully solve the problem. “Theft losses at DWP are real and are increasing. However, eliminating these losses is not enough to offset the proposed costs,” O’Connor said. “Furthermore, DWP will be unable to fully eliminate theft given the diffuse nature of the DWP system.”.
But O’Connor also pointed to threats that go beyond theft tickets and stolen wiring. He said the department faces real security risks, including those posed by drone attacks or terrorism threats, which he said “appear to justify the proposal at some level.”
He referenced an incident in February involving a man who shot himself after driving his car through the perimeter fence of a power substation while carrying explosives and several firearms. Officials characterized the episode as an attempted terrorist attack, saying it could have caused catastrophic infrastructure damage.
For advocates watching Los Angeles’ charter reform process, the timing is what stands out. David Levitus, executive director of the advocacy group LA Forward, said he was surprised to learn of the proposal so late in a process his organization has monitored.
“The fact that this is being dumped in late May — what’s the rush?” Levitus said. He added that he thinks Los Angeles needs to be wary of creating new police departments in general, especially without a clear case and clear constraints and accountability mechanisms.
The City Council’s discussion Thursday will determine whether LADWP’s request moves forward at a moment when streetlight repairs are piling up. copper theft losses remain high. and the city’s own governance path—through charter change and voter approval—could reshape what security looks like for critical infrastructure.
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