Bass and Caruso differ on public safety and policing. But not as much as many think

LOS ANGELES — On a campaign stop last spring in the San Fernando Valley, billionaire developer and Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso was flanked by a who's who of old-school heavyweights from the Los Angeles Police Department.

Former Chiefs William J. Bratton and Charlie Beck — joined by Jim McDonnell, an LAPD veteran who later became Los Angeles County sheriff — were there to send a message, one that's a bedrock of the campaign: Only a tough-minded leader can clean up the city and get crime under control — and Caruso is that man.

The sight of Caruso next to the law enforcement notables further cemented the image of him as a law-and-order candidate and a world apart from his opponent in the race for mayor, the more progressive Rep. Karen Bass, who has sought to strike a balance between increasing safety and implementing criminal justice reforms. But while Bass and Caruso have offered different visions on crime, public safety and policing, in some ways they are not as far apart as they appear.

Both candidates have consistently rebuffed calls from some residents, politicians and far-left activists to cut the Los Angeles Police Department's roughly $3 billion budget because of what many see as the