As the city of Los Angeles considers establishing an Office of Unarmed Response and Safety, the union that represents rank-and-file LAPD officers Wednesday issued a list of 28 radio calls that it says should be handled by unarmed responders, including complaints about loud parties, welfare checks, and non-criminal mental health issues.
“This would help free up officers that are responding to basically non-criminal issues,” said Debbie Thomas, a director with the Los Angeles Police Protective League. She noted the number of officers has decreased in recent years.
The number of sworn LAPD officers is 9,235 as of Feb. 14, according to Chief Michel Moore. The department at one time had more than 10,000 officers.
“We are looking at a police department that’s dwindled in size,” said union spokesman Tom Saggau. “We just absolutely do not have the people power to respond to calls that are not deemed emergencies.”
Among the other calls the union thinks should be handled by someone other than an LAPD officer:
- Non-criminal and/or non-violent homeless and quality-of-life related calls
- Cleanups of encampments used by unhoused people, unless officers are requested or prescheduled
- Non-violent juvenile disturbance or juveniles beyond parental control calls; (for example, a youngster won’t go to school)
- Non-violent calls for service at city parks
- Under the influence calls (alcohol and/or drugs) where there is no other crime in progress
- Verbal disputes involving non-injury traffic collisions, refusing to share ID at traffic collisions
- landlord/tenant disputes
- Illegal gambling
“We are not mental health workers, we are not social workers,” Thomas said. Some of these calls can be extremely time-consuming — especially loud party calls, she said. “Those eat…
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