As the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) grapples with understaffing and slow emergency response times, the city’s police union—the Los Angeles Police Protective League representing more than 9,000 sworn personnel—recently submitted a list to the Los Angeles City Council of 28 nonemergency calls that it believes should be diverted to unarmed responders.
The list—which includes nonviolent homeless and mental health-related calls—will allow officers to prioritize and respond more swiftly to critical emergencies and higher profile crimes and allow nonprofit workers and other city agencies to respond instead, the union stated in a March 1 statement to the media. The outline was sent to the city as part of its labor contract negotiations.
