Michael Jackson’s memorial service at Staples Center is gonna cost Los Angeles a bundle, at least as much as the Lakers’ championship parade. Officials are figuring on 1,400-2,500 police officers to do crowd control around the perimeter and have asked off-duty detectives and high ranking officers to hit the streets. The Los Angeles police Department has approximately 9,000 officers.  The LA Times reports:

The extra police deployment will be paid for out of an LAPD fund reserved for overtime costs of special events such as "1st Amendment marches, protests and funerals and other special events large in scope and that have a potential to impact public safety."

Because the fiscal year started July 1, the fund for all police overtime — which according to one source covers 1.6 million hours, or nearly $90 million — is flush. But some city officials questioned the wisdom of spending possibly more than $1 million in overtime funds so early in the fiscal year, noting that the city could find itself cash-strapped later in the event of a fire, earthquake or other major disaster.

And we are pretty damn likely to have fires, earthquakes or other major disasters. It’s Los Angeles.

Los Angeles city councilman Dennis Zine thinks  Jackson’s family and AEG Live–the promoter of Jackson’s now-canceled London concerts  which owns the Staples Center where the service will be held and Nokia Center where it will be simulcast–should cover the costs, especially because LA is facing $530m budget deficit. Zine, who once tried to pass legislation against paparazzi chasing celebs, said:

If the Jackson family’s gonna spend $25,000 on a gold casket, I would think that AEG and the Jackson family could help defray the costs so it’s a safe and secure environment for mourners that want to come.

He’s got that right. It’s estimated that the cost to the city in police overtime, street services, sanitation, and related services will be over $2.5 million and rising by the hour, which is more than what the Lakers’ championship parade would have cost the financially beleaguered city. Only the Lakers’ picked up half the tab, and private donations covered almost all the rest.

The Jacksons and AEG have not been so forthcoming.

According to Radar Online, the Jackson family had wanted to charge $25 per ticket for the memorial.  And reports on CNN and elsewhere have them taking 900o tickets for seating inside Staples Center to distribute among their own friends and family. There are nine surviving Jackson siblings, plus the parents Joe and Katherine. Staples Center seating capacity is 20,000 for concerts and boxing matches. 11,000 tickets were available for Staples. Math is hard, but not that hard…

WTF? The City of Los Angeles is

 a half-billion dollars in the hole. Layoffs. Furloughs. Potholes unfilled, trees untrimmed. Animal services, the ethics commission, whack whack whack.

And we’re paying $2 million so the family can have a party, albeit kind of a sad one, for their friends?  The Jackson clan’s chosen 9000 closest friends have already begun picking up wristbands and tickets at Dodger Stadium, where the LAPD is on duty to help with the distribution, according the live news reports on local television station KTLA. One of the wristbands is put on by the voucher holder at pick-up to prevent scalping and the other is for a guest. The same method will be used when 8750 lucky winners of the lottery pick up their pairs of tickets today, and the California Highway Patrol has already shutting down off-ramps from the 5 leading to Dodger Stadium to only allow those with ticket vouchers into the area until 11 am today.

Meanwhile the family is holding a private funeral, possibly today or tomorrow right before the Staples/Nokia event downtown–which will reroute busses and close streets for blocks around the entertainment complex–at either the Hollywood Hills or Glendale branch of Forest Lawn, an event which will further snarl traffic along the 5 and 134 freeways and could cause the closure of Griffith Park, the nation’s largest urban park, which abuts the Hollywod Hills cemetery.

City Council member Jan Perry told KTLA that though the memorial service is 

a private event, held on private property

the city has a responsibility to provide for public safety.  Though she didn’t mention about the profits that will be made by the bereaved family and related entities and how this service is further whipping up a frenzy of sales. However Perry did say

that officials would "deeply appreciate" help to offset incremental costs, such as transportation, sanitation and staging.

 Yes, there are reports of hundreds of thousands of people descending on L.A. from around the world to be here, and those people need hotel rooms, will buy food and pay our 9.75% sales tax, but AEG, Sony Music and the Jackson family are the ones who stand to make huge bank on this,  along with a Dutch pension plan. 

AEG is reportedly already working on booking ABBA and Led Zeppelin in the O2 concert hall in London where Jackson was to appear at $1 million a night, and they had insurance on Jackson covering drug overdoses. So they’re sitting pretty.

It may take a while for the Jackson estate to settle, but music royalties are paid quarterly, so the city should start preparing an invoice. It’s not our responsibility to foot the bill for this.

I’ll be liveblogging the memorial service on Tuesday from the comfort of home. The event will stream live on the internet and be broadcast on various stations. Check your local listings, and join me…