LAPD Communications Division: Alternative Dispatch policies by LAPD's reimagining of how the Department functions

Press conference on Alternative Dispatch by LAPD.

LAPD’s new Alternative Dispatch program centers on finding a way for law enforcement to focus on its core functions such as issues of public safety and saving lives. There are many new changes such as the new contract made with Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services to provide help with those who are contemplating suicide. There is also an expansion of the response model for the Systemwide Mental Assistance Response Team (SMART) and a few changes in law enforcement response to traffic collisions.

Communications Division (CD) serves as a support entity for the entire Los Angeles Police Department. CD's Valley and Metropolitan Dispatch Centers are the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) for the City of Los Angeles. As the PSAP, CD has the responsibility to staff and answer, on a 24-hour basis, the telephones upon which calls for service are received. This includes 9-1-1 emergency calls and text messages (police, fire, and paramedic). CD handles only police related calls for the City. When a 9-1-1 call or text message for the Los Angeles Fire Department is received, the caller is connected with the Fire Department.

A NEW “Alternative Dispatch” program — some information on important changes:

The new alternative dispatch program will accomplish two important things:

1. It will allow law enforcement to focuse on core functions such as public safety, saving lives, protecting others from those who would prey upon them.

2. It will allow focus on finding non-law enforcement alternatives that can handle low-levels of dispute and conflict and get those matters resolved without requiring a police officer to be present.

The next step of a series of steps that have been taken over the last 8 months have shifted officers’s responsibilities from taking reports in person to reporting online through the Community Online Reporting System ( CORS) system. Reporting online will allow a victim of a theft from vehicle, minor vandalism, or some other non-violent crime, that rather than waiting a substantial period of time — sometimes hours — for a police officer to respond to the scene and make a report.

Instead they can go online and initiate the information, and allow LAPD to begin an investigation as warranted based on the information they receive.

That has saved the Department thousands of hours already in officers’s time as well as improved the service of community members who no longer have to wait for an officer’s arrival.

The other aspect of alternative dispatch service that has been implemented is for calls that are not a law enforcement matter that are better served by other city services or by Los Angeles County resources, has resulted in a LAPD officer responding to a scene, only to conduct a field investigation and determined that the best resource is a 311 (City services) referral or a 211 (County services) referral.

Since mid-November 2020, nearly 800 calls have been referred to 211, and over 350 calls to 311.

That means for over 1,000 instances, in which officers who normally respond to a call and determine it’s a referral to another City or County service, we have shortened this to a more efficient process.

It also aligns LAPD’s finite and limited resources to the most essential functions.

Tips & Leads: There have been clues and tips regarding criminal activity that officers can learn from community members about narcotic activity, vice activity, things that are a crime and that we do need to conduct an investigations and follow-ups.

LAPD has now partnered with Los Angeles Crime Stoppers so that when a crime is not in progress, it can be reported on line rather than an officer responding — which previously meant after patrol officer’s evaluation, will only to pass on information to the appropriate investigative unit for follow-up, that process is now streamlined.

Since this partnership with LA CrimeStoppers has been in place, over 400 have been given referrals and appropriate follow-up.

LAPD has partnered with the Didi Hirsch Mental Illness Services that could amount to a potential suicide contemplation or the sense of safety and welfare, and whether or not they pose a risk to themselves. In just three weeks, Didi Hirsch has taken over 91 instances in which a police officer responding — and then seeking the help of mental health professionals, we’ve been able to streamline that service.

LAPD assures the public, that in each one of those mental health calls for service instances, the person involved did NOT post a risk to themselves or others. Those types of situations will continue to respond to utilizing not just patrol officers, which 70% have received additional mental health training so they can deescalate and deal with a person experiencing a mental health crisis, but also LAPD has expanded the model of their mental health unit, the SMART teams, consisting of a trained uniformed officer coupled with a LA County Mental Health Clinician from the LA County Department of Mental Health.

This co-response model now has that unit respond from time of dispatch. Previously, we would ask our patrol officers to respond to that call, and upon stabilizing the situation, would have a SMART team respond. It was determined that a professional health care professional on scene soon enough. The immediate dispatch of a SMART team is expected to improve the care for people dealing with a mental health crisis.