West LAPD Weekly Crime Report, C-PAB meeting notes, Citizen App update and 911 Diversion Program for mental health calls,
Click here to view West LAPD’s Basic Car Crime Report for 4/04/21 to 04/10/21. Note more information now on reports!
Click here for notice on tips when calling 911 or non-emergency numbers..
Click here for PDF version of the LAPD Online Police Reporting Policy.
Community-Police Advisory Board (C-PAB) Meeting Notes - April 14th
General Comments from West LA LAPD Commanding Officer, Capt. Jonathan Tom:
• Our burgeoning issue now is burglary.
Citywide Statistics:
• Homicides and shootings are up. Numbers are 102 homicides (34% increase) — 26 more homicides than we did in previous year to-date.
• There were 403 shooting victims year-to-date (80% increase) - 179 more people shot this year compared to last year.
• Those are stark numbers.
• The good news to report is that our violent crime in West LA is down compared to last year.
• We’re have zero homicides — last year we had one at this time.
• Our shootings are up slightly but our numbers are very small.
• Overall the situations we are seeing are property crime increases. There are increases in the property crime category except for theft. Burglaries are the ones mostly concerned about.
• Motor Vehicle Thefts (up 36.7% — almost 37%) We had 51 more cars stolen this year. We continue to see the same trends that you hear week after week — that 30% - 50% of the cars that are stolen there are keys in the car. Please lock your cars, keep key fobs inside. We will see a reduction in the number of stolen cars if we can accomplish that simple task of keeping your keys outside of your cars.
Alternative Response Efforts: 911 Diversion Plan for Mental Health Calls: A discussion with Sandri Kramer, Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services
At Wednesday’s C-PAB meeting, Sandri Kramer from the Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services was guest speaker. She discussed the new alternative response efforts and the LAPD 911 Diversion Program. Here are notes from that meeting:
For more information on how LAPD’and the Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services had been trying to reform how mental health calls are handled, click on this link to LOS ANGELES TIMES “Reformers want police to step back from mental health calls. The LAPD says it’s been trying”
• History of 911 Call Diversion Program: Approximately 15 years ago, a pilot program in New York City with NYPD. Note that NYPD has only one law enforcement entity but Los Angeles County has about 80. The pilot program was in response to the number of “emotional distress calls” (EDC) that did not end up with either hospitalizations or arrests—but rather the people at the scene are either despondent or in some mental health crisis, needing “TLC” ultimately. The study engaged with the local suicide crisis center in NY and the 911 dispatchers began diverting these EDC calls to the crisis center. The program worked well but politics got in the way and the program ended.
• About five years ago, Sandri Kramer of the Didi Hirsch Suicide Prevention Center, Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services wanted to bring the program to Los Angeles.
• Ms. Kramer found LAPD Captain Brian Bixler to help champion the effort. Captain Bixler visited the Houston Police Department where they had a similar program and thought the 911 Diversion Program made sense.
• About four years ago, LAPD and the Didi Hirsch Suicide Prevention Center applied for a grant from the Department of Justice but failed to get the grant.
• With persistence and patience, both LAPD Captain Bixler and Sandri Kramer shopped the 911 Diversion Program around for several years. The opportunity to look at the program again was due to the nationwide protest of Floyd George’s death, where “defunding” the police was talked about by Mayor Garcetti and the City Council.
• The 911 Diversion Pilot Program received funding through the Mayor’s Innovation Commission to pilot the program. The program is currently about two and half months into launching. Working with LAPD Communications so that both the Downtown and Valley 911 Dispatch Centers are diverting calls to the Didi Hirsch Suicide Prevention Crisis Line eight hours a day. The reason why it is only 8 hours is due to funding.
• There are some hiccups but it is clear that the program is serving the community well and is beneficial to first responders. The 911 Dispatchers must make a lot of decisions based on what the caller is stating and make a decision in a rapid amount of time. It is challenging especially since the Didi Hirsch clinicians are not available 24/7.
• If a Didi Hirsch clinician feels a situation requires law enforcement, the clinicians have a direct line to 911 Dispatch for a service call.
• Sometimes, when a family member needs a wellness check on a loved one, there is an alternative connection that can be provided. The Didi Hirsch clinicians goal is to deescalate a situation and then do follow-up for care.
• The 911 Diversion Program is helping the community to be safer and enables our first responders to respond to emergencies where they are really required to be present — and that is not always the case with some of the mental health crisis.
Homeless and the 911 Diversion Calls:
• Because of the lack of funding that causes restricted hours for alternative mental health care, there is a gap between telephonic response and in-person response that is not necessary law enforcement.
• The City is working on an alternative crisis response system where they are looking at these gaps. What is needed is more units to dispatch. However, there have been a number of diverted calls from LAPD from homeless individuals — sometimes they are in dire need of psychiatric care. If they are unable to engage over the phone, that means that an in-person response is required. But a lot of the time, homeless callers are perfectly capable of having a conversation with mental health clinicians and to get access to Didi Hirsch Mental Services’s resources.
• LAPD officers, in order to sharpen their listening skills, LAPD officers often work the suicide prevention hotlines. Didi Hirsch Suicide Prevention Center also works training negotiation teams — many LAPD SWAT, LAFD, LA County Fire and the FBI officers take shifts on the crisis lines. Didi Hirsch services covers Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County, Riverside County and Ventura County — so it’s a very large area.
• A new mental health crisis number “988” — anticipated launch in Summer of 2022. This new 3-digit number should make it easier for people to access mental health care during a crisis.
• In summation, Captain Jonathan Tom stated that often times during a mental health crisis an LAPD officer may not be the right tool. This new 911 Diversion program will most likely have positive outcomes for those with a mental health crisis.
• In summation, Captain Jonathan Tom stated that often times during a mental health crisis an LAPD officer may not be the right tool. This new 911 Diversion program will most likely have positive outcomes for those with a mental health crisis.
CITIZEN APP - just because you get a Citizen Alert, it doesn’t mean a crime has occurred. West LA Division to update Citizen App so accurate information is distributed to the community
When the community gets a “reported incident” on the app, it is a notification that a service call has been dispatched. What the app does not do is advise of the disposition of the call. Often times when officers arrive, it is discovered that no crime has actually taken place or that a crime that took place was actually a lot less than what was put out on the Citizen App.
Because the Citizen App does not give the disposition of what happened after the officers get there, those “reported incidents” may cause alarm in a community.
To resolve this misinformation, LAPD scheduled a meeting with the administrators of Citizen App to solve the problem. Citizen App will send a weekly list of all the crimes that occurred in the West LA Division will be reviewed and the disposition shared. In other words, Citizen will receive information on whether there was a crime, no crime or a lesser crime.
This is to calm the West LA community and to hlep understand that just because you get that Citizen alert, it doesn’t mean that a crime has actually occurred in the area.
Community-Police Advisory Board (C-PAB) Meeting Wednesday, April 28, 2021, at 2 PM — community invited to participate
The next Community-Police Advisory Board (C-PAB) is scheduled for Wednesday, April 28, 2021, at 2 PM. The community is welcome to participate.
Please email Robert Ringler for details to add you to the next meeting.
What is C-PAB?
Community-Police Advisory Boards (C-PABs) were created in 1993 to provide community members with an opportunity to provide information and advice to their respective Area and to take information from the police department back to the community.
Each of the 21 geographic Areas (community police stations) throughout Los Angeles has its own C-PAB. These advisory groups meet monthly to discuss crime and quality of life issues. Each C-PAB has two co-chairs, one of the Area commanding officer while the second is a civilian member voted on by the membership.
Recently, many C-PABs have formed subcommittees in addition to the general group to tackle specific crime and quality of life problems. Examples of C-PAB subcommittees include Graffiti, Youth, Homeless Outreach and Traffic.
Follow West LA Station’s LAPD on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/lapdwestla/
Visit the West LA Community Police Station website.
Follow West LA Station’s LAPD on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/lapdwestla/
Visit the West LA Community Police Station website.
Did you know…?
Bel-Air’s Senior Lead Officer (SLO) is Officer Pete Ojeda. He can be contacted by email at 36393@lapd.online, or by telephone at (310) 444-0741.
VIDEOS: Officer Involved Shootings (OIS) actual video: LAPD has a youtube channel that shows actual OIS confrontations. You can connect to that channel by clicking here. For transparency, the LAPD has a policy in place to make public all videos of OIS investigations after 45 days.
The LAPD Community Online Reporting System (CORS) is now accepting online reports for minor traffic collisions without injuries. To learn more about access to the CORS system, go to LAPDonline.org.
At this point in time, video and photos cannot be uploaded. When on the system, indicate there are no photos or videos (evidence) and get the DR number. Then call the West LA LAPD Station at (310) 444-0741 or email our Senior Lead Officer, Pete Ojeda at 36393@lapd.online with the DR number generated from the CORS online report. West LA LAPD office will send you a link to upload the photo and video evidence.
