The Los Angeles City Council\u2019s recently approved budget includes funding to expand a program that diverts police from some mental health crisis calls to 911.<\/p>\n
Since launching in 2024, trained clinicians with the city\u2019s Unarmed Model of Crisis Response (UMCR) have handled over 20,000 calls ranging from mental health crises to wellbeing checks. About 96% of those calls were resolved without police or a response from the L.A. Fire Department.<\/p>\n
The new city budget includes funding to expand those teams from nine police divisions \u2014 including Devonshire, Wilshire, Southeast, West L.A., Olympic and West Valley \u2014 to a total of 15.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a year where many programs continue to fight for service funding from the city, it\u2019s so great that we are able to continue prioritizing this,\u201d Godfrey Plata, deputy director of progressive policy advocacy group the LA Forward Institute, told LAist.<\/p>\n
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Plata said UMCR\u2019s expansion is one more step toward taking the program citywide, which his group hopes to do by the 2028 Olympics.<\/p>\n
The crisis teams are slated to go online within the six additional police divisions by June 2027. It\u2019s not yet clear which police divisions will be selected for expansion.<\/p>\n
The move comes after the City Council voted unanimously in February to make the pilot program permanent<\/a>.<\/p>\n A 2024 LAist investigation found that nearly one-third of LAPD shootings since 2017 involved someone living with a mental illness and\/or experiencing a mental health crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n How the program works<\/p>\n In 2024, the city partnered with three nonprofit <\/a>organizations \u2014 Exodus Recovery, Alcott Center and Penny Lane Centers \u2014 to provide teams of trained clinicians in service areas spread across L.A. The teams are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the Police Department\u2019s Devonshire, Wilshire, Southeast, West L.A., Olympic and West Valley divisions.<\/p>\n Crisis response workers are trained in de-escalation techniques, mental health, substance use, conflict resolution and more, according to a report from the Office of City Administrative Officer<\/a>. The teams don\u2019t have the authority to order psychiatric holds for people in crisis, but they can work with them to find help locally, and spend more time on follow up than law enforcement can.<\/p>\n In its first year, Los Angeles\u2019s Unarmed Model of Crisis Response sent teams of unarmed clinicians to more than 6,700<\/a> calls for service, ranging from mental health crises to wellbeing checks. About 4% were redirected to the LAPD. Average response times have been under 30 minutes.<\/p>\n Examples of these interactions include members of the teams taking food to a woman who was crying and hungry, working with a business owner to engage with someone sleeping in a parking lot and sitting with a family for nearly three hours to help resolve a conflict involving a relative.<\/p>\n Support from LAFD<\/p>\n