A year after National Guard troops and immigration enforcement agents deployed in the streets of Los Angeles, some residents fear more policing will come as the city prepares to host the 2028 Olympic Games.
“We’re anticipating a really, really intense crackdown,” said Chris Tyler, communications manager at the L.A. non-profit Strategic Actions for a Just Economy.
In late January, the Los Angeles Police Department requested $96 million from the city to fund more vehicles and upgraded equipment. An internal document from the police department lays out the proposed budget. The L.A. City Council recently greenlighted the hiring of up to 410 police officers, following a push from Mayor Karen Bass and LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell to bolster the police force, which has been in a deficit for years, ahead of the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympics.
“That might be a net positive for the city of Los Angeles because they’re under local jurisdiction and all the accountability that our city requires for its policing, and that could be a good thing,” said Kamy Akhavan, managing director of the USC Center for the Political Future.
But some Angelenos are reminded of the aftermath from the last time L.A. hosted the Olympics in 1984.
“If you look at ‘84, there’s a clear link between that and the Rodney King riots and the uprising that occurred, and just the intensification of policing around the city after ‘84 because of all this additional infrastructure and resources that they acquired through that Games process,” said Tyler.
Aside from local police, L.A. will experience an influx of federal agents ahead of the Games, which the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security designated a national special security event (NSSE).
“Venues that will have the strictest NSSE protocols in place are SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Expo Park in South Central — neighborhoods that are historically Black and Brown, low-income, working-class neighborhoods that are already under so many intense pressures from gentrification displacement,” said Tyler.
“Those are the people who are going to live with the aftermath of it. It’s not the people who live in the hills,” Tyler said, “it’s the people who are around the venues who are going to sustain the lasting impacts of this intensification.”
Last August, President Trump signed an executive order to create a security task force for the Games.
“We’ll do anything necessary to keep the Olympics safe, including using our National Guard or military,” said Trump.
L.A. is still reeling from Trump’s deployment of National Guard members in June following protests that erupted downtown after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted raids targeting a Home Depot, day labor centers and the Fashion District.
Two years away from the Olympics, much remains to be determined about what impact hosting the Games will have on Angelenos and their city. But some remain cautiously optimistic that the Olympics will deliver on its promise to improve L.A.
“I remember when the ‘84 Olympics were here and what a cool feeling that was,” Akhavan said, “Who knows when we’re going to get another Olympics? I’m daunted by the challenges of it, excited by the promise of it.”