The Brief

The Los Angeles City Controller’s Office made several findings about police responses to mental health crisis calls, including that patrol officers often are first to respond to calls for service instead of the department’s mental health teams.

That should change, according to an assessment released this week.

L.A. City Controller Kenneth Mejia said in a statement that the LAPD should revise its policy to allow the department’s SMART units — short for Systemwide Mental Assessment Response Teams — “to lead responses in mental health-related calls that don't involve weapons.”

LAist has reached out to the police department for comment.

The assessment makes several recommendations about police responses to mental health crises and comes several years after former police Chief Michel Moore said the department would deploy SMART units with patrol officers to mental health-related calls.

The teams are made up of armed officers and clinicians from the L.A. County Department of Mental Health who have the goal of de-escalating situations and preventing violence.

But Dinah Manning, senior advisor at the Controller’s Office who led the assessment, said patrol officers still are the primary decision-makers on scene, citing the LAPD’s own policy and data on calls they reviewed.

“When it comes to LAPD mental health crisis response, LAPD requires an armed-first, police-first, patrol-first response to mental health crisis incidents,” said Manning, who also is the controller’s chief of strategic initiatives.

Background

According to the Controller’s Office, the former police chief said in 2021 that allowing SMART units to respond to crisis incidents with patrol officers helps to de-escalate incidents and reduce the trauma a subject may suffer.

But the assessment found LAPD policy and practice created a barrier between the SMART units and the person in crisis because patrol officers, instead of authorities with specialized teams, were in charge.

“SMART’s role as the secondary unit severely limits the mental health professional's ability to intervene and improve outcomes for the person in need or in crisis,” the assessment said.

An LAist investigation published last year found that between 2017 and 2023, 31% of shootings by L.A. police involved a person perceived by officers to be living with mental illness or experiencing a mental health crisis.

In an emailed statement, Mejia said the assessment was launched partly in response to a 48-hour span in January 2023 when LAPD “killed three men who had a history of mental health conditions or appeared to be in mental crisis.”

One of those incidents involved Takar Smith, 45, who police said was armed with a kitchen knife inside an apartment before officers fired a Taser at him and later shot him.

In audio of a 911 call released by the department, a caller can be heard telling dispatchers that Smith lives with schizophrenia and had not been taking his medication. Several officers arrive, and after entering the apartment, they attempt to talk Smith down.

After officers shoot Smith with the Taser, he grabs a kitchen knife. Officers open fire.

During a news conference after the three killings, Moore said several points of the Smith incident gave him “pause.”

“I’m being very clear about my dissatisfaction with what I believe were points of information regarding [Smith’s] mental health ... that ... resources were not called upon,” he said.

Recommendations

Among other findings, the Controller’s Office said police officers working with SMART units in 2022 and 2023 were not required to receive additional mental health training beyond the department’s 36-hour mental health intervention training.

“What we found is SMART officers during the scope period ... are not required to have any other specialized training aside from what a rookie patrol officer would be getting,” Manning said.

The controller also recommended the city and police department:

• Develop a system to track the impact SMART units have on mental health-related incidents where they are dispatched. 
• Require additional training for SMART officers to ensure that they “are updated on evolving standards and best practices.” 
• Continue to support and fund the Unarmed Model of Crisis Response pilot, an L.A. city effort that sends out unarmed clinicians to nonviolent mental health crisis calls.

If you’ve noticed more wildlife visiting your yard in recent years — maybe digging up your vegetable garden or even drinking from your pool — you’re not alone.

A recent study from UCLA found that larger predators like mountain lions and bears are more likely to interact with humans and travel closer to population centers in drier years. To determine this, the researchers analyzed state data collected on reported property damage, nuisances, conflicts and sightings.

“It kind of runs the full gamut of how people interact with wildlife around their neighborhoods and their homes,” said UCLA postdoctoral researcher Kendall Calhoun, the lead author on the study.

It's not just P-22. Mountain lions across the whole state are forced to leave their habitats for survival.

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Courtesy Kendall Calhoun

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Different motivations for different animals

As you might expect, different animals might have different reasons for entering populated areas. But in large part, Calhoun said, it comes down to animals’ survival instincts.

The primary motivator for herbivores is food. That’s because with less precipitation, there’s also less plant material for them to eat. (Don’t forget: even with all the rain we’ve had recently, much of Southern California is still in a drought.)

“ Deer and elk might be pushed to find those food resources in places that they normally wouldn't go, like agriculture, crops, things from people's yards, persimmons from your tree,” Calhoun said.

And as herbivores get pushed toward humans, the animals that prey on them follow. In fact, the species that saw the highest increases in clashes with humans were omnivores and carnivores, specifically mountain lions, coyotes, black bears and bobcats.

But even these animals have varying reasons for getting close to people.

“Mountain lions might be more inclined to look for supplemental food in livestock — that might be a sheep or a goat,” Calhoun said. “Black bears may be more willing to go into your trash to look for food to help supplement what they're missing in their resource-scarce natural areas.”

Meanwhile, animals of all kinds might enter a yard even when they have enough food to look for standing water.

About the data

Researchers analyzed data from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife that were reported over the last several years as part of a citizen science initiative.

One important caveat is that the researchers primarily looked at conflicts between wildlife and residents, and there may be differences in how these interactions are reported.

For example, you might not report a deer eating fruit from an overloaded tree as a nuisance, but even a peaceful black bear digging through your trash could raise alarm bells.

 ”People also really value having wildlife living alongside them,” Calhoun said. “It really is important for us to try to strike that balance where there's pros for both sides, without some of the negative interactions that come with living in close proximity with wildlife species.”

Learn more about human-wildlife interactions

There’s more background on the research on UCLA’s website, and you can find the full study here.

You can also learn much more about interactions between humans and wildlife in LAist’s Imperfect Paradise podcast series, “Lions, Coyotes, & Bears.”

Low-cost internet service will soon roll out in parts of L.A. County at the end of this year, and organizers say eligible households can sign up for alerts when the service becomes available.

The service — a partnership between L.A. County and internet provider WeLink — is the latest project from the county’s “Delete the Divide,” an initiative meant to bridge the digital divide in underserved neighborhoods.

Major funding for the project comes from the American Rescue Plan Act, as well as a grant from the California Public Utilities Commission.

It’s badly needed

About 23%, or more than 20,000, households in the East L.A. and Boyle Heights area don’t have home internet, according to Delete the Divide.

The service will also soon be coming to South L.A., where more than 40,000 households were identified as lacking home internet.

What you need to know

There will be different plans available — including low-income, market-rate and small business options — at fixed prices. The low-cost plan will start at $25 per month for qualifying families. Those who don’t qualify could also purchase plans starting at $65 a month. Monthly rates are fixed until at least September 2027.

Every plan includes unlimited data, a router and parental controls.

Low-cost internet service will soon roll out in South L.A. at the end of this year.

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Courtesy of L.A. County

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Low-cost internet service will soon roll out in parts of East L.A. and Boyle Heights at the end of this year.

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Courtesy of L.A. County

)

How it works 

WeLink will install a Wi-Fi router inside a home and a 4-inch radio on the roof to connect the household to the internet.

Interested households can sign up for updates and be notified by WeLink when service is available here.

The U.S. Department of Transportation is launching what it's calling a "civility campaign" to promote good behavior on flights and at airports, as the busy holiday travel season gets underway. The department is naming the campaign "The Golden Age of Travel Starts with You" and announced the effort in a press release last week.

The DOT shared a minute-and-a-half video that begins with images of airline travelers of decades past, set to Frank Sinatra's "Come Fly With Me." The video then shifts abruptly to tense music and video clips of bare feet swiping on an in-flight monitor and then a series of brawls on flights.

Secretary Sean Duffy then poses five questions he says every air traveler should ask themselves this holiday season. The questions include: Are you helping a pregnant woman put her bag in the overhead bin; are you dressing with respect; and are you saying thank you to your flight attendants and pilots.

"The campaign is intended to jumpstart a nationwide conversation around how we can all restore courtesy and class to air travel," the press release reads. "This won't just make the travel experience better for the flying public — it will ensure the safety of passengers, gate workers, flight attendants, and pilots."

The DOT cites a rise in bad behavior on board. The agency says there have been 13,800 incidents involving unruly passengers since 2021. Since 2019, the Federal Aviation Administration has seen a 400% increase in in-flight outbursts, according to the Transportation Department.

In 2023, the FAA reported nearly 2,000 incidents, which was a sharp decline from the height of the pandemic when mask mandates fueled many disputes.

The FAA expects this Thanksgiving holiday to be the busiest for air travel in 15 years, with Tuesday seeing the most air travelers. AAA projects 6 million people will be flying in the U.S. for the Thanksgiving holiday.
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