Since the city of Los Angeles launched a pilot program to deploy a team of clinicians, and then launched a pilot program to respond to incidents caught in a mental health crisis, it has diverted thousands of calls from police and maintained its response time within 30 minutes.
Of the more than 6,000 calls the program responded last year, the vast majority were handled without law enforcement intervention, according to program officials.
“This is exactly the kind of solution we are interested in,” God Free Plata, assistant director of the Progressive Policy Advocacy Group LA Forward, told LAIST.
However, it is unclear how long the $14 million unarmed crisis response program will last as the city is tightening its belt within its budget. The contract with local nonprofits staffed by the response team is set to expire at the end of August.
The city’s administrative office said it has extended the program by submitting a request for budget proposals to Mayor Karen Bass’ office.
Laist asked Bass’ office if the request could be approved.
“The budget development process is underway and the mayor will announce the budget proposal on April 21st,” the spokesperson said in an email.
Supporters say that’s a good start
People living with mental illness, their families and activists have long called for the removal of law enforcement from the call for a mental health crisis. The presence of a police officer or sheriff’s deputy can escalate the situation and lead to violent or fatal consequences.
I discovered it last year during a LAIST investigation. Almost a third of LAPD shootings since 2017 participated in people with mental illness or those experiencing a mental health crisis.
Will the LA program repurpose mental health calls to clinicians on behalf of police?
According to the city, the crisis team, whose members don’t carry weapons – answered 6,037 calls last month, with 96% of them resolved without requiring a response from police. It’s just a small portion of the tens of thousands of mental health-related calls that Los Angeles police receives each year, but advocates of the program say it’s a promising start.
The office of LA City Councilman Eunisses Hernandez calls the program a “game changer.” In a statement, the office pointed out that thousands of Angelenos who were in crisis would “get care from trained professionals rather than armed officers, to drain conflict, prevent unnecessary arrests and link people to needy assistance.”
“This appears to be community-centric care of trauma information,” the statement continued.
In 2023, LAPD received approximately 43,000 calls for services involving people with mental illnesses and those experiencing a mental health crisis. According to the department’s recent year-end usage review.
The pilot program team recorded an average response time of approximately 30 minutes. This is a benchmark for the county’s mobile crisis response efforts (covering larger territory with more teams) and is struggling to meet. County response times have dropped to about two hours on average over the past few years, up to six hours.
How the program works
City Partners with three nonprofit organizations The organizations of Exodus Recovery, Alcott Center and Penny Lane Centers are open 24 hours a day at police stations, seven days a week, at Devonshire, Wilshire, Southeast, West, Olympics and Nishitani, to provide two teams to three service areas across LA.
Crisis response workers are trained in escalation techniques, mental health, substance use, conflict resolution and more. According to a program report from the city’s administrative office. The teams do not have the authority to order psychiatric holds for people in crisis, but they can work with them to find help locally and spend more time following up than law enforcement.
Shortly after the programme began, crisis workers provided several examples of interaction. Members of the team had food for crying and hungry women, worked with business owners to interact with people sleeping in the parking lot, and sat with family for nearly three hours to resolve conflicts involved in relatives.
Hope and fear
Some supporters of the program that views pilots as a success say they are worried about the future as they have not gained solid support from city council members.
“We have started meetings with various council offices and although there is general support for this work, no one is yet hoping to make a commitment or make sure this money is carried over to continue funds in another year,” Plata said.
Jason Enright, a LA Forward volunteer who has defended police alternatives for several years in responding to the mental health crisis, said he recalls the support he has received from council members to launch the city’s new efforts following George Floyd’s 2020 murder in Minneapolis.
“But that energy seems to be dissipating,” Enlight said.
Enlight has a son who lives with autism. He worries that as his son gets older, if he is experiencing a crisis, there could be a situation where someone could call the police.
“As a parent, it’s like keeping me up at night thinking that someone might be trying to help my son and that could end up in his death,” Enlight said.
Enright said the pilot program’s budget is relatively low compared to the city’s overall budget, and its response times are encouraging.
“Obviously something is working. With the right funding and investment and building it all over the city, I think that could really have a big impact,” he said.
Multiple efforts
City pilots are one of several efforts across the region aimed at responding to a crisis without armed police.
Another program known as crisis and incident response through community-driven engagement or circles, runs through Bass’ offices and focuses on mental health crises involving barren people.
The county will partner with the local fire department and the Department of Mental Health to send an outdoor intervention team consisting of drivers, licensed psychiatric technicians and people with personal experience with mental illness.
That 71 teams responded in 2024 to sought 21,000 services, the department said.
