motion <\/a>that calls for the creation of a citywide Office of Unarmed Response and Safety.<\/p>\n\n
The motion \u2013 co-introduced by Council President Pro Tempore Mitch O\u2019Farrell, Chair of Public Safety Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, Council President Nury Martinez, Councilmembers Kevin de Le\u00f3n, Bob Blumenfield and Curren Price, and seconded by Councilmember Nithya Raman \u2013 intends to streamline various recent efforts that redirect non-violent calls for service through the 911 emergency system, most often related to people experiencing homelessness who are in distress, away from an armed police response, instead sending trained service providers to directly assist people with resources and case management, including services related to mental health, substance abuse, addiction, and conflict resolution.<\/p>\n
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The motion adopted today will unite existing Council initiatives toward unarmed response, including CIRCLE (Crisis and Incident Response through Community-Led Engagement) and the Therapeutic Van Pilot Program, as the City moves toward a more comprehensive and holistic approach to public safety. The CIRCLE pilot, which began in January 2022 with operations in Hollywood and Venice, has shown promising initial returns, including more than 20,000 positive, proactive engagements in Hollywood between January and April. In response, the City Council in June increased its annual budget from $3 million to $8 million and expanded operations to Downtown, South Los Angeles, and parts of the Valley.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe motion we approved today will streamline the various innovative approaches to public safety, including the CIRCLE program we are pioneering in my district,\u201d said Council President Pro Tempore O\u2019Farrell. \u201cI am confident in our collective ability to improve upon the public safety model in Los Angeles – to focus law enforcement where they are best suited, and to treat mental health and substance abuse issues with the skill and response that is most appropriate.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe expansion of these unarmed response models calls for increased oversight, accountability and coordination to ensure consistent deployment citywide while maximizing our first responders to remain available for the emergency response they were trained to do,\u201d said Councilwoman Rodriguez.\u00a0 \u201cFrom a public safety and budgetary perspective, we must do better to align our resources to address the multifaceted challenges affecting our neighborhoods while improving response and deployment.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cSince the summer of 2020, this Council has been focused, thoughtful and dedicated to the long-term goal of an unarmed crisis response program within the City of Los Angeles,\u201d said Council President Martinez. \u201cIn order to ensure this success, we need to coordinate our existing efforts and services. By creating this office, we can ensure that all crisis response efforts can collaboratively deliver Angelenos the services they need so that we can become a safer Los Angeles for all.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhat is clear is that Los Angeles relies on law enforcement too often to engage in matters that could more reasonably be directed to unarmed, non-law enforcement entities,\u201d said Councilmember de Le\u00f3n. \u201cAn unarmed response offers us an opportunity to implement positive changes in communities by utilizing engagement teams better equipped to manage encounters with unhoused Angelenos and other non-violent calls and free up law enforcement officers for serious reported crimes. A new City agency will be critical to ensuring we develop a successful unarmed intervention model.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cAs our various unarmed responder pilots roll out, we must make sure these programs don\u2019t each exist in their own vacuum. It\u2019s imperative that the City has dedicated personnel to ensure we are investing in the most successful ideas,\u201d said Councilmember Blumenfield. \u201cI\u2019m committed to expanding the programs that work best and I\u2019m grateful to my colleagues for sharing this vision.”<\/p>\n
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“We have reached a critical juncture in the City of LA and while we knew Reimagining Public Safety would not happen overnight, establishing an Office of Comprehensive Community Safety and Unarmed Crisis Response is meant to solidify the long-term results we all want to see; a system built on compassion, fairness and transparency,\u201d said Councilmember Price. \u201cThe idea of Reimagining Public Safety was never meant to be a tagline or a way to pacify the heartache constantly felt within Black and Brown communities. It was a promise to Angelenos that they have been seen and heard by City leaders to challenge the status quo, abolish disparities and implement change. Coming together as a collective body and one voice shows the strength and commitment toward seeing this through.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Today, O\u2019Farrell also introduced a related effort to expand the CIRCLE pilot into the 13th District communities of Echo Park, Historic Filipinotown, and Rampart Village. Under O\u2019Farrell\u2019s leadership, these communities have made significant investments in housing solutions for people experiencing homelessness, notably: permanent supportive housing,\u00a0as well as low-barrier and no-barrier options including multiple \u201cTiny Home Villages\u201d and the former \u201cSafe Sleep Village\u201d which is now in the process of being converted into 454 low, very-low and extremely-low income units of permanent supportive housing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Motion builds on previous unarmed crisis...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ca-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53226"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53227,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53226\/revisions\/53227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}