The first responsibility of every government is to keep its people safe. That means…
- Ensuring the reliability of our water and power systems
- Fully staffing our Police and Fire Departments
- Improving our Emergency Response
- Building unarmed response teams for mental health crises
Our first responders have faced significant challenges in recent years, including a devastating firestorm, a once-in-a century pandemic, and increasingly frequent extreme weather events. Although our population has tripled in size, and the department’s call load is ten times greater, the Los Angeles Fire Department operates with fewer stations and a smaller staff than it did 40 years ago. Modernizing LAFD funding will be crucial to meeting the demands of the 21st century.
Community-based policing is necessary to restore trust in law enforcement in communities that have historically suffered from discrimination. While the LAPD has made strides in reform over the past decade, including reducing pretextual stops and complying with federal consent decrees, there is more work to be done. Not every 911 call necessitates a police response. A well-trained unarmed response to mental health crises will provide for safer public encounters, ensuring everyone walks away unharmed.
That being said, Los Angeles is one of the most under-policed major cities in the world. A police force of fewer than 9,000 sworn personnel is insufficient for a city of 4 million people spread over 500 square miles. I support the City’s efforts to offer incentives for LAPD recruitment to keep pace with attrition and expand the force as required.
In my first year on the Council I have secured overtime funding for the LAPD's North Hollywood, Van Nuys and Foothill Divisions. This allows greater attention to our City parks in District 2. We have also posted new closing times where appropriate to discourage unsafe activity after dark.
Concentrations of tents and RVs are not a humane option for the unhoused, they are to often a magnet for crime, and a danger to their occupants as well as the surrounding community. When the Sanitation Department's budget for CARE+ cleanups was cut, I secured additional funding for these operations in District 2. Week after week, CARE+ teams remove litter and debris from tents and RVs in our most sensitive areas, near schools and parks, while outreach workers work to place camp occupants in safer alternative shelter.
Demolishing illegally occupied properties like the derelict buildings at Valley Plaza reduces the number of police and fire emergencies in the neighborhood, but concentrations of RVs on City streets can also attract criminal activity, Coordinated operations with the City Administrative Officer, Caltrans, California Highway Patrol, the Parks Department LAHSA, LAPD, and the City's departments of Transportation, Sanitation, and Street Services have succeeded in removing RVs from severely impacted locations, but some of these areas requires constant repeated attention.
Ensuring public safety also means improving our preparedness for natural disasters such as earthquakes, wildfires and extreme weather events. I have introduced proposals to improve the resilience of our water and power systems, and to better prepare for recurring events such as the seasonal flooding of low-lying streets in the Valley. You can subscribe to our District 2 newsletter for updates on these and other public safety efforts.