Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has admitted to making mistakes and is asking voters for another chance — outlining to The California Post her plan to boost police hiring and clean up street homelessness in the city.

In an exclusive interview with The Post, Bass revealed she didn’t know “how profoundly broken” LA’s homeless management had become, while saying outside restrictions that hampered her efforts have been lifted.

The incumbent said on Friday that she’s hoping lessons from her first term will win over frustrated voters — including those still reeling from the devastating January 2025 wildfires, which erupted while she was in Ghana.

When asked about her biggest regret, the mayor didn’t hesitate. “The biggest regret is most obviously that I wasn’t here,” she said.

She pointed to her staff helping residents rebuild, as well her trips to Sacramento and Washington to secure aid, but admitted those efforts haven’t won over the public.

“I’m a workhorse and not a show horse, and I’ve paid for it politically,” she acknowledged.

If reelected, Bass said she would boost the LAPD’s ranks to 9,500 officers by the 2028 Olympics, overhaul homeless housing, and expand mental health and addiction treatment to get people off the streets for good.

She is targeting the city’s sluggish police hiring process, which can take up to a year to bring new officers on board, as she pushes to rebuild the LAPD to 9,500 officers.

She has already replaced the head of the city’s Personnel Department, which oversees hiring, and issued an executive directive aimed at cutting the process to 180 days.

“Staffing up the department after years of decline is one of my top priorities. We’re cutting the red tape and streamlining processes to turn that around,” she said.

The goal is to fill police academy classes faster, speed recruits through training and hire officers faster than the department loses them.

The LAPD had about 8,550 sworn officers in July, its lowest staffing level in nearly 25 years and down from roughly 10,000 in 2020.

This year’s budget calls for 510 new hires, but retirements and departures threaten to wipe out those gains. City projections show the force shrinking to just 8,555 officers by summer 2027, well short of Bass’ goal.

Bass also fiercely defended LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, whom her election rival, City Councilwoman Nithya Raman, has pledged to replace before his term ends in 2030.

“I think that she doesn’t have a clue what is needed in terms of recruiting and hiring a police chief,” Bass said.

The mayor noted her nationwide search for McDonnell took 10 months, warning that replacing him could leave LA with a new chief just six months before the Olympics. “That’s insanity,” she added.

Bass is also focused on homelessness, as the city’s street population has risen to 45,194 from 41,980 when she took office in 2022. The 2026 count showed a 3.4% annual increase, with street homelessness surging 7.9% after two years of declines.

“I knew the system was broken, but how profoundly broken it was, I did not know,” she admitted. “The system was never designed to end homelessness. It was only set up to manage,” she added.

Bass wants to overhaul the system to give LA more control over city-funded homeless housing.

Currently, the embattled Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority assigns housing countywide, meaning city-funded units can go to outsiders while thousands remain homeless on LA’s streets.

“In many, many cases, they (the homeless) were not people from Los Angeles,” Bass said.

Her solution is a new city-county agreement giving LA access to the regional homelessness database and greater authority over placements into city-funded housing.

Approved in principle by city and county leaders, the agreement would allow LA to prioritize people living on its streets rather than relying on a countywide system that doesn’t automatically give them preference.

Bass believes the change could help “end the majority of street homelessness,” including sprawling encampments that have frustrated residents for years.

She also wants to expand mental health and addiction treatment.

“If you just take people randomly off the street and put them in an apartment and just expect them to magically heal… it’s naive,” she said.

A California Post/McLaughlin poll conducted Oct. 15-19 found Raman leading Bass 46.7% to 38.8%, with 13.5% of potential voters undecided.

Just 25.5% approved of Bass’s job performance, while 71.7% disapproved.

A newer UC Berkeley/Los Angeles Times poll showed the candidates tied at 40%, with 19% undecided, but found 65% of likely voters viewed Bass unfavorably.

Bass acknowledged she spent too little time communicating her administration’s accomplishments.

“I didn’t focus on that. That was a mistake,” she said.

With Tuesday’s election looming, Bass is asking voters for more time to deliver results that eluded her first term, framing the race as a choice between building on her progress or trying an untested approach.

“We are at a crossroads where we can soar into the future,” she said, “or we can throw our city up for experimentation on different theories and ideas.”