L.A. expands unarmed crisis response pilot to more LAPD divisions

The City Council Friday expanded a pilot program aimed at diverting certain non-emergency 911 calls for service to unarmed responders to three additional areas in Los Angeles.

Council members voted unanimously to extend contracts through Aug. 31, 2025, with Penny Lane Centers, Exodus Recovery and Alcott Center for a total of nearly $11.3 million. Additionally, each service provider will pick up one additional Los Angeles Police Department Division area to cover, under the following:

-- Alcott, which covers the Wilshire Division, will expand to Olympic Division;

-- Penny Lane, which covers the Devonshire Division, will expand to West Valley Division; and

-- Exodus, which covers the Southeast Division, will expand to the West L.A. Division.

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This effort, known as the Unarmed Model of Crisis Response Pilot Program, was one of a few initiatives the City Council moved forward with in response to the 2020 death of George Floyd, who was killed by Minneapolis police officers.

"What happened in the aftermath of that was that different pilots and programs were started across the entire city, including the one that we're expanding today, which is three different nonprofits answering unarmed response calls in three different areas of the city," Councilwoman Nithya Raman said.

There's also the Crisis and Incident Response Through Community-led Engagement, which recently expanded to provide coverage of more West L.A. and coastal neighborhoods, among others.

Raman noted that Unarmed Model of Crisis Response has a quicker response time, about a 27-minute response time, compared to CIRCLE teams, which has a 31-minute response time. Though, she added that CIRCLE teams are handling more than 100 calls a week.

Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez shared Raman's excitement about this model, noting that she recently visited Exodus' dispatch center and was impressed by their work. The nonprofit provides centralized dispatch services for all three of the contractors.

The nonprofits will expand in areas where there is a "gap" in unarmed response coverage, according to a city report. There are five LAPD service areas with no unarmed response program -- North Hollywood, Olympic, Topanga, West L.A. and West Valley.

Raman also expressed concerns regarding 911 queue times and a shortage of dispatch operators.

"I do think we have a lot more work ahead, and it's been a long time since 2020. Let's really make this into a holistic response. We can make it citywide by next year," Raman said.

Hernandez added, "We want to make sure that it happens to the city of Los Angeles because our constituents deserve it."

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