CIRCLE program expands to more neighborhoods in West L.A.

Efforts will begin this weekend to increase an unarmed response program to deal with homelessness and mental health issues in West Los Angeles.

CIRCLE, which stands for Crisis and Incident Response through Community-led Engagement, is a 24/7 unarmed response program that deploys trained teams to address non-urgent LAPD calls related to unhoused individuals.

It has operated as a pilot program for the past two years in the LAPD Pacific Area. And now, it will have a chance to have even more of an impact as the areas the response workers will cover grows.

The program will now reach "the neighborhoods of Oakwood, Mar Vista, Palms, Playa Vista, Playa Del Rey and Westchester," said LAPD Captain Mike Applegate.

Applegate says not only are CIRCLE reps being assigned by regular dispatchers, police officers are also calling them in as they assess a call for service, as the department has determined a response by people with the time to build a relationship with a mentally troubled person is a better use of resources.

"CIRCLE's efforts focus on de-escalating and relationship building to try to encourage people to come accept services," he told KNX News' Pete Demetriou.

Each community where CIRCLE operates has a Decompression Center where a CIRCLE Team can bring an unhoused individual who needs a break from the street. The facility provides a space where the individual can sit or lie down, have a snack and water, and meet with the mental health counselor or case manager in a private, calm setting. Outreach teams also conduct follow-up engagement.

"CIRCLE continues to be a proven program to help Angelenos, and the CIRCLE team has helped people in need and freed up police officers to respond to the calls where they are needed the most," Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement . "This expansion plan means people in West Los Angeles will have an array of responders to make the biggest difference based on their needs."

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Examples of incidents that are diverted to CIRCLE include well-being checks, indecent exposure, noise disturbances, person on a substance, and loitering. If the incident fits the criteria, the operator transfers the incident to a CIRCLE operator who deploys a CIRCLE Response Team.

The program also operates in Hollywood, Downtown Los Angeles, South Los Angeles, Venice, the Harbor Area and the San Fernando Valley.

In the last fiscal year, more than 14,000 incidents were diverted to CIRCLE. According to Bass' office, CIRCLE teams have placed hundreds of individuals into interim housing, reconnected individuals back to their families, obtained permanent supportive housing placements, assisted more than 1,600 individuals in obtaining vital documents such as social security cards and IDs, referred more than 1,000 individuals to mental and behavioral health services, and reversed opioid-related overdoses.

The public can access CIRCLE through the non-emergency line at 1-877-275-5273 or 877-ASK-LAPD. Select the "non-emergency dispatch" option.

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