Imperfect Paradise: LAPD requested nearly $100 million from the city for the Olympics. Will taxpayers be footing the bill?
Norco 80
LAist Studios
3.7 • 889 Ratings
🗓️ 23 January 2026
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The 2028 LA Olympic Games were initially promised to be no-cost to taxpayers. However, the Los Angeles Police Department requested nearly $100 million from the city for additional resources to police the games. LAist reporter Libby Rainey tells us what’s in LAPD’s request, how this could impact the city budget, and what it means for your tax dollars.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, I'm Brian Kett, and I'm hosting a new live edition of the Story Collider at LAist. |
| 0:04.6 | Join me on Thursday, February 19th for an unforgettable night of true personal stories about times when plants fall apart and the familiar disappears. |
| 0:12.3 | Get your tickets at LAIS.com slash events. |
| 0:16.0 | The stories you need in less than five minutes. |
| 0:18.8 | Catch the LA report with me, Austin Cross, in the mornings. |
| 0:22.1 | Nereida Moreno for the afternoon edition. |
| 0:24.5 | And me, Julia Paskin in the evening, the LA report wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:29.9 | This is in Perfect Paradise. |
| 0:31.7 | I'm your host, Nereida Moreno. |
| 0:34.3 | The LA 2028 Olympics are inching closer and closer. |
| 0:38.3 | The big question is who's going to foot the bill, particularly when it comes to security. |
| 0:43.2 | The Los Angeles Police Department is asking the city, as in your tax dollars, to pay for a significant amount of the costs associated with policing the games. |
| 0:51.8 | But what about the promises that the Olympics will be no cost for taxpayers? |
| 0:56.4 | We first covered this consequential issue on Imperfect Paradise in November. Since then, there are |
| 1:01.8 | growing questions around expenses and accountability. So in this episode, we dive deeper into the |
| 1:07.9 | LAPD's request for tens of millions in its upcoming budget, why the |
| 1:12.0 | department says it needs the money, and the ongoing questions about who or what exactly will |
| 1:17.0 | pay for the 2028 Olympics. L.A.ist reporter Libby Rainey has been tracking the 2028 Olympics, |
| 1:23.4 | and she joins us again. Welcome back, Libby. Thanks, Noreira. So Libby, we spoke with you a few months ago about the outlook of the Olympics and what it meant that L.A. is the financial backstop for the games. Currently, the budget for L.A. 28 is more than $7 billion. So remind us, who are the funders and where's this money supposed to come from? |
| 1:43.7 | So L.A. is hosting the games, but the event itself is really meant to be privately funded |
| 1:51.0 | and it's been privately planned by a nonprofit called LA28. |
| 1:55.4 | And L.A. 28's budget, as you just referenced, is more than $7 billion. |
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