The Brief

The Los Angeles Police Department has said for decades it was doing more to de-escalate confrontations with people struggling with mental illness, but an LAist analysis has found little change in recent years.

Since 2017, 31% of people shot at by police were perceived by officers to be struggling with some kind of mental illness, according to LAPD annual use-of-force reports.

And that percentage has remained largely steady for years, even as initiatives to reduce those encounters have been funded and deployed.

In many of its own reports, LAPD officials cite “tactical de-escalation training” and specially trained response teams as ways to reduce the potential for violence and better serve the community. The department was one of the first in the nation to pair mental health workers with police. But L.A. leaders, including City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who has been vocal about the shootings, acknowledge the city’s investments so far aren’t nearly enough to meet current needs.

"We continue to see that alternate crisis response teams are not funded at the levels needed to support Angelenos experiencing mental health crises,” Hernandez said in a statement to LAist. “We will continue to see these preventable shootings unless we invest in community based mental health services and alternate crisis response teams at the scale needed at both the City and County level.”

LAPD’s Mental Health Evaluation Unit sends teams — made up of a police officer and a clinician from the county’s mental health department — to thousands of mental health-related calls a year, but the program remains understaffed, according to department authorities.

Then-Police Chief Michel Moore said earlier this year that the program known as SMART, which stands for Systemwide Mental Assessment Response Team, was responding to “less than a third” of mental health-related calls.

Michel Moore

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Courtesy of LAPD

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He told the city’s Police Commission that SMART, which had 19 clinicians as of last March, would require at least another 15-30 to meet current needs.

LAPD officials could not say how many times in the last seven years a SMART was sent to incidents in which police fired on a suspect. In response to a Public Records Act request from LAist, the department said it conducted a search and “no records responsive to your request were located.”

Police officials did respond to LAist’s request for data for this story, but did not make themselves available for interviews.

By the numbers

The Police Department releases shooting data annually on incidents in which someone was injured or killed. Last year, there were 34 police shootings in the city, 12 of which involved a person the department said was “perceived to suffer from a mental illness and/or a mental health crisis.”

LAist asked the department for data over several years. Here’s what it showed:

• Between 2017 and 2023, 31% of the shootings by police involved a person perceived by the officers to have mental health issues or who was experiencing a mental health crisis. (The department has not specified in its data how many of those were fatal.)
• The most shootings in that time frame happened in 2021, when there were 37 during the calendar year, 15 of which involved someone dealing with mental illness. That’s 41% of all shootings that year. 
• The lowest number was in 2019 when four of 26 people — 15% — shot at by L.A. police were perceived to be dealing with mental health issues.

Experts on police use of force have long said the mere presence of a police officer or sheriff’s deputy at a scene where someone is in a mental health crisis can escalate the potential danger for all involved. And they note that many people living with mental health issues don’t get the help they need before a crisis occurs.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 1 in 20 adults in the U.S. experience serious mental illness each year. About 65% of adults in the U.S. received treatment for serious mental illness in 2021, the most recent year for which the data was available.

Moore, who retired in January, has said one of the biggest challenges for the city, as well as the county, is an insufficient number of inpatient and outpatient care resources for people living with mental illness.

Police shootings involving people in crisis are not unique to Los Angeles, but the city does have unique challenges, including a population of more than 3.8 million residents and a growing homelessness problem.

The 2023 homeless count by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority found that 25% of unhoused people in L.A. County self-reported experiencing a severe mental illness. That’s up from 24% from the previous year's count.

In its latest year-end use-of-force report, LAPD said 38% — 13 of 34 — of the people officers shot at were experiencing homelessness. It’s unclear what percentage of those people were perceived to be dealing with mental illness.

Calls for more training, more clinicians

For many people, calling the police might seem like the only option in times of crisis — particularly when someone is armed with a gun or other object that could be used as a weapon.

That’s why mental health advocates and law enforcement leaders across the country have called for departments to require more training in de-escalation techniques.

In a 2022 Harvard Law review blog post, Fred Vars, a mental health law professor at the University of Alabama, referenced an incident more than 13 years ago that he called “the most dangerous moment of my life.” He was having a psychotic episode, one he said he couldn’t fully remember except for the outline of a police officer in the doorway of his apartment.

The incident resolved peacefully, but Vars noted that if he had brandished a weapon or resisted arrest, he might be dead. He admitted he was “seriously impaired” at the time, but not dangerous, and that the interaction ended “exactly as it should have” — with him in an ambulance en route to a hospital.

“The most important thing I’ve learned from years of cycling into and out of depression is that it always gets better,” Vars wrote. “But recovery for many is only possible if they, like me, survive potentially fatal interactions with police.”

In many incidents he’s reviewed, Timothy Williams, a use-of-force expert who spent 30 years with LAPD, said officers who don’t have the requisite training “precipitate the violence in the approach they use.” He said he hopes to see more patience from officers and “reverence for life.”

“You can’t go in there like a cowboy and exacerbate a problem that could be de-escalated,” he said.

He said he’s seen success stories in which officers kept a substantial amount of physical distance between themselves and the person in crisis for as long as possible. He also said he’s seen officers take their time, slowing things down, to keep a suspect calm.

LAPD officials have pointed out that not all of their interactions with people in crisis end badly. Last August, officers in San Pedro successfully detained a military veteran in his 60s, who was armed with a knife.

A team from the Mental Evaluation Unit arrived on scene, according to the department. An officer who had completed mental health intervention training talked to the man for two hours, and eventually officers were able to get him to drop the knife in exchange for a pack of cigarettes.

Jody Stiger, a retired LAPD sergeant, stressed that it’s important for law enforcement agencies to make de-escalation training part of an ongoing program — not just a one-off.

“Because it’s a perishable skill, officers just need to be reminded of utilizing better tactics when they can,” Stiger said.

LAPD has more than 8,950 sworn officers. The department has said that between 2014 through the end of 2023, nearly 5,500 officers completed training on mental health intervention, focusing on de-escalation techniques. A 2022 year-end report notes that since 2014, all new officers were receiving the training before finishing their probationary year in the field.

Moore said in January that an additional 1,200 department personnel had received de-escalation training using virtual reality headsets and video game-like environments.

He also said the department was continuing to look at additional “less-lethal” tactics, including use of the BolaWrap, a device that launches a weighted cord to subdue people, and Tasers that can be deployed by an officer standing farther away from a target.

LAPD’s Mental Health Evaluation Unit was one of the first in the country to pair police officers with clinicians from the county Department of Mental Health to de-escalate tense situations. It was established in 1993 in the wake of the Rodney King beating.

But department authorities have said the unit is unable to deploy enough SMART units to keep up with the amount of mental health calls received each day. In 2022, for example, more than 70% of radio calls in which a SMART was requested did not receive them, according to a report from the Office of Inspector General.

A fatal shooting in Tarzana  

Last summer, L.A. police responded to 911 calls reporting that a woman was assaulting multiple people with a metal pipe in Tarzana. They caught up with a suspect outside a gas station along Reseda Boulevard.

An officer yelled at the woman — later identified as Jessica Brown — multiple times, telling her to “drop the pipe,” according to body-worn camera video the department released later. She then moved toward the officers with the pipe in her hand, and they shot at her with a gun that fires foam rounds and a Taser, police said.

Within seconds, another officer opened fire — this time with live rounds.

Brown, 35, was mortally wounded. She died at a hospital. Her family has said she was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

It’s unclear whether a SMART was dispatched. An LAPD spokesperson contacted earlier this month said they didn’t have that information available.

Bianca Palmer, Brown’s younger sister, questioned why the officers resorted to lethal force without trying again to use other less lethal methods to take her into custody.

“I know that she ... injured multiple people in the process,” Palmer said. “But to resort to just shooting someone multiple times without taking other routes was unnecessary.”

A selfie of Jessica Brown, who was shot and killed by L.A. police during an interaction with officers in Tarzana in July 2023.

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Courtesy of Bianca Palmer

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In an interview with LAist, Palmer recalled her sister and their childhood fondly. When their mother died, leaving behind seven children, Brown became like a second mother to Palmer, who was just 16 years old at the time.

Things changed around the time Brown turned 30, not long before she received her diagnosis, Palmer said. She seemed to lose interest in the things that had mattered to her.

The family didn’t know how to help, but did their best checking in on her.

“We felt helpless,” Palmer said. “In general it was a shock. We’ve never experienced anything like this ever in our lives.”

The shooting is still under review by the Board of Police Commissioners and no determination has been made as to whether the officers’ followed department policy.

Loss of life ‘violent and unnecessary’

Activists and city authorities have been vocal about other shootings from that year.

In January 2023, Mayor Karen Bass, members of the City Council and local activists sharply criticized the Police Department after back-to-back incidents in which officers shot people they perceived to be dealing with a mental health crisis.

In a thread posted online, Hernandez called the loss of life at the hands of officers “violent and unnecessary.”

“We can no longer look away from this crisis in our policing system — it’s long past time that we establish permanent, life-affirming, care-first responses to mental health crises that truly uplift the public’s safety and address the root causes of harm,” the council member said on X, formerly Twitter.

Takar Smith, 45, was fatally shot Jan. 2, 2023, at an apartment in the Westlake neighborhood where he had barricaded himself in a kitchen. Police said his wife had contacted the department to report that Smith violated a restraining order by returning to the residence. She told a dispatcher that Smith had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Smith’s wife said at a news conference days after the shooting that she had been trying to get help for Smith, when he was killed.

A screen shot from the body-worn camera footage of the fatal LAPD shooting of Takar Smith.

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Image from LAPD video

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In body-worn camera footage, several officers can be seen entering the apartment and trying to talk to Smith. His speech seems, at times, disorganized and unintelligible.

A summary of the incident contained in a civilian Police Commission report indicates police spoke with — and tried to approach — Smith, who put two bicycles between himself and the officers. One police officer fired a Taser at Smith as he turned and grabbed a kitchen knife off of a countertop.

The shocks knocked Smith to his knees, and he dropped the blade.

According to police, the officers fired their guns at Smith when he picked up the knife again. Two officers fired seven shots, according to the report.

Moore said at a news conference after the shooting that it had given him “pause,” and he questioned why a SMART was not called to the scene to assist with Smith.

"I'm being very clear about my dissatisfaction with what I believe were points of information regarding his mental health — or his mental condition — that two resources were not called upon," the chief said.

The Police Commission found later that the officers who shot Smith did not comply with department policy on use of force.

The day after the Smith shooting, an L.A. police officer shot and killed Oscar Leon Sanchez, a 35-year-old immigrant from Mexico, whose family said he’d been struggling with his mental health after his mother’s death.

The department said officers shot Leon Sanchez at an abandoned home in South Central Los Angeles when he stepped toward them armed with “a makeshift stabbing weapon.” They shot him multiple times, and he died at a hospital.

An LAPD spokesperson said last year that officers at the scene did not call for a SMART, even though Leon Sanchez had been acting erratically during the incident, at one point accusing officers of trying to rob him.

The Police Commission determined later that officers complied with department policies.

But Jonathan Smith, a use-of-force expert who reviewed the body-worn camera footage last year at LAist’s request, said the case “screams out” for intervention from mental health specialists. He said he was relatively impressed with the officers’ decision to have less-lethal force ready, but they did not call for a SMART, even though Leon Sanchez was reportedly pacing and throwing things at cars.

“The information I have raises very, very serious concerns about whether any force was authorized or useful,” Smith said

Looking for alternatives 

There are ongoing efforts from the city and community groups to provide help for people in ways that remove policing altogether. But those efforts require funding.

"Over the past decades, our mental health system has been systematically shredded not just here in California but throughout the country,” Bass said in a statement to LAist. “The consequence of this divestment is individuals with mental illness deteriorating into crisis that can sometimes result in violence.”

Bass noted her office pushed for Proposition 1, a statewide ballot measure passed in March that shifts much of California’s millionaires tax toward housing for people with mental illness, and provides a mechanism to fund more beds in psychiatric facilities and supportive housing. She added that prioritizing “informed mental health responses” will be a focus in the search for the next police chief.

Last November, the mayor also noted that a pilot program launched in Hollywood and Venice in 2022 has since expanded to downtown L.A., South Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. The program, run by nonprofit Urban Alchemy, involves a team of mental health professionals and staff with lived experience who respond to calls deemed non-violent and that involve people who are unhoused.

The idea is to relieve police of what they call “quality of life” calls like trespassing or loitering. The teams respond to thousands of hotline calls each month that come to the nonprofit instead of police.

Other approaches are more grassroots.

Calling for an end to what they see as preventable police violence, Alejandro Villalpando and his partner Susana Parras organize meet-ups and trainings through the nonprofit Community Alternatives to 911. The group educates the public on how to get help during a mental health crisis without a police response.

Villalpando, who teaches social science at California State University Los Angeles, said he believes cities should divert funding from police budgets toward more public-health-focused efforts, including providing more mental health workers.

That, he said, would likely do more to curb violence than providing additional training for police officers.

“Because if you say you can train them to be less violent in how to deal with these situations, then maybe you should pay for them to become social workers and [therapists],” Villalpando said.

“And not come to a scenario that is already intense and add a gun to it.”

Immigrants from El Salvador with Temporary Protected Status remain uncertain about their ability to legally live and work in the U.S. after federal officials said late Tuesday that the Department of Homeland Security planned to make an announcement about the program.

“Until such [an] announcement is made, Salvadoran individuals present in the U.S. under TPS retain protection,” DHS said in a statement.

On Wednesday, the federal program that allows people to live and work in the U.S. due to armed conflict, environmental disaster and other “extraordinary” conditions in their native countries was slated to expire for El Salvador.

An estimated 170,000 immigrants face the loss of their work authorizations and potential deportation, which has ignited fear of family separation and other anxieties.

Why this matters

L.A. County is home to the largest Salvadoran diaspora, though it’s unclear how many are beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status.

El Salvador was granted TPS in 2001, meaning some immigrants have been living in the U.S. for more than two decades. Here, they’ve built families, launched businesses and become integral parts of their communities.

What TPS holders can do now

Nonprofits like the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project recommend that TPS holders seek an attorney to determine if they're eligible for a different immigration status. Advocates also recommend that people who are on the verge of losing TPS create an emergency plan in case a family member is detained or deported.

How does this TPS decision impact your community?

From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sept. 12, immigration reporter Julia Barajas and community engagement producer Annie Nguyen will be speaking with community members at Café Calle, 3310 S. Central Ave., Los Angeles.

If you would like to share your experience, or if you have ideas about immigration issues they should be covering, join them for a conversation and a free drink.

How other former TPS beneficiaries have fared

In July, the Department of Homeland Security terminated TPS for Haiti. Since then, many Haitians have lost their jobs and increasing numbers are being deported.

The anxiety of losing TPS can also influence former recipients’ mental health: in Springfield, Ohio, an incoming college freshman died by suicide after DHS fitted him with an electronic ankle monitor (one of the ways the agency tracks people it may deport). The man’s name was Pierre Damas Bel, and in a social media post, he described “carrying a feeling of shame and humiliation [he] never imagined” shortly before he died.

What the Trump administration says

“TPS is just that — it’s temporary. It was never designed to be permanent,” said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin with regard to the Supreme Court majority’s decision to allow for the expiration of TPS for Haiti. The dissenting justices determined there was ample evidence that the federal government’s move was fueled by racial animus.

The Trump administration has moved to terminate most of the 17 TPS designations that were in place when its second term began. Signed into law by former President George H.W. Bush in 1990, TPS offered temporary safeguard from deportation and eligibility for a work permit — but not a pathway to permanent residence.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

A stretch of beach along Long Beach’s Peninsula is gone after a weekend of pounding waves eroded massive amounts of sand. The hurricane-driven swell left the area’s boardwalk in tatters and is threatening to undermine the foundations of more than a dozen oceanfront houses.

Homeowners and structural engineers were assessing the damage to about 20 residences, and crews were trying to rebuild defenses after a weekend of unforgiving waves pulled so much sand into the sea that, at low tide, there was a 15-foot drop from the boardwalk to exposed rocks below. The waves damaged the boardwalk’s already battered seawall and left dozens of homes exposed to future swells, which are expected to pummel Long Beach again on Tuesday evening.

Dennis Poulsen, who built his beachfront home on the Peninsula in 2005, said he has never seen the backside of the seawall. Now that it’s exposed, “it’s in far worse shape than I thought,” he said of the eroded wood. “It just has no muscle left to fight.” 

Without the beach’s sand barrier and intact seawall, the ocean water can pour in beneath the boardwalk and attack the foundations of the ocean-facing homes, Poulsen said. Many houses are built atop shallow foundations that erode easily, as the waves drag sand back into the Pacific, compromising homes’ structural integrity, he said. 

A man jumps onto a collapsed pathway and looks at the waves coming under the boardwalk after strong waves flooded the Long Beach peninsula on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026.

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Thomas R. Cordova

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Long Beach Post

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Poulsen said his home was built on fine sand compacted to the point that it behaves like concrete, but all the Peninsula’s homes were built under the assumption that the beach and seawall would offer protection. Now, the barriers are compromised, inviting the ocean into the homes built to overlook it. 

Why were these waves so bad?

In this neighborhood, residents are used to guarding against strong tides and waves.

Heavy trucks commonly rumble up the shoreline to build a protective sand berm. City crews truck in the sand six days a week to replace what waves wash away, at the cost of about $1 million annually. Before storms, residents heap sandbags and tack up plywood, usually escaping major damage.

This time was different.

One resident called it a “perfect storm” — the result of a hurricane hundreds of miles away, warmer ocean temperatures and the convergence of high tide and high swell. 

Hurricane Marie, originally a Category 2 storm that’s since been downgraded, gave the weather system most of its energy, said Marine Safety Chief Gonzalo Medina. Warm ocean temperatures, as hot as 80 degrees, caused the water to expand, resulting in greater volume and higher tide, Medina said. When combined with high swell, the Peninsula faced a “one-two punch” that produced large waves, as high as five feet, Medina said.

City workers salvage what’s left of the seawall as they prepare for the next round of strong waves along the boardwalk after waves pounded the Long Beach Peninsula on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026.

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Thomas R. Cordova

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Long Beach Post

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High swells are expected again this evening, when high tide is predicted to crest over six feet, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Though Medina expects it to be smaller than over the weekend, he added that the weather system is dynamic and unpredictable. “We’re keeping our fingers crossed that it’s a lot less impactful than the last two nights,” he said. 

Experts have warned that low-lying areas of Long Beach like this are especially vulnerable as climate change causes tides to reach further inland and exacerbates extreme weather.

Residents brace for more 

Inspectors on Tuesday were still trying to assess damage between 63rd and 67th places, where waves can hit the Peninsula after passing through a gap in Long Beach’s breakwater system. Evacuation orders remained in effect, and the boardwalk was closed to foot traffic.

Residents remained uncertain about the immediate safety of their homes, let alone their long-term prognoses, and some returned to fortify their houses in the meantime.  

One resident, Keith Holt, who moved into his oceanside home in 2015, said he was “just trying to save the house” as engineers drilled reinforcements into the seawall, all that stood between Holt and the ocean as waves pelted the walls and shot geysers of water into the air. 

Long Beach firefighters survey the damage along the boardwalk after strong waves pounded the Long Beach peninsula on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026.

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Thomas R. Cordova

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Long Beach Post

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Ashley Simpson, a neighbor, walked out to the boardwalk in her pajamas to gauge the situation. Two of her kids participated as junior lifeguards every summer, running miles on the now-submerged Peninsula beach. She added that it’s devastating to see that land gone, especially in a community as tightly knit as Long Beach. 

The swallowed beach puts other homes in jeopardy, because the oceanside homes protect the bayside homes, Poulsen said, adding, “If this goes away, the Peninsula goes away.” 

Jennifer Pieracci-Jensen, who lives on 67th Place, said she “hasn’t stopped moving” since her street flooded with several feet of water two nights ago. She combined a pump in her subterranean garage, sandbags and a water gate to try to keep the ocean and accompanying debris at bay, but it had overcome the defenses on her low-lying street.

Robbie Cox shovels out 2 feet of sand in front of a home along the boardwalk after strong waves pounded the Long Beach Peninsula on Sept. 8, 2026.

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Thomas R. Cordova

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Long Beach Post

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She has only spent a few years in the home, having purchased the duplex with her husband and family friends in 2023, yet she already knows that more battles are ahead. An exceptionally strong El Niño is headed to the region this year, and the coastal neighborhood will have to keep fighting rising sea levels.

“It’s not going to get any better,” she said.

Rancho Palos Verdes is leading the charge to create a new landslide insurance option for homeowners.

The effort brings together a coalition of city and county governments who say they need financial relief as they address ongoing issues like coastal erosion.

RPV's problems

A portion of Rancho Palos Verdes sits on an ancient landslide. For decades, land movement was minimal. But above-average rainfall in 2022 and 2023 rapidly accelerated the slip — up to 1 foot per week in some places — prompting Southern California Edison and SoCalGas to shut off utilities for hundreds of residents.

Roughly three years after above-average rainfall fueled a devastating landslide in Rancho Palos Verdes, the landscape has become almost unrecognizable. Around 20 homes, ripped apart by the land movement, have been red-tagged, meaning they can’t be lived in. Dozens have been yellow-tagged.

Landslide damage has closed dozens of trails in the Portuguese Bend area of Rancho Palos Verdes on April 04, 2026.

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Brian Feinzimer

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LAist

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The city’s eventual plan is to buy back some of these homes and turn them into open space, but trying to slow the landslide has pushed the city to the financial brink, with Rancho Palos Verdes spending on landslide mitigation as much as it takes to run the whole city.

Meanwhile, homeowners have had to put their savings — including their retirement — back into homes to repair landslide damage. Insurance companies haven’t helped. Generally, homeowners insurance does not cover landslides that aren’t caused by earthquakes.

In 2024, Rancho Palos Verdes surveyed residents who lived in the landslide area about their insurance coverage. None of the residents surveyed had insurance that covered landslides.

Other solutions haven’t panned out

An assembly bill to allow the governor to declare a state of emergency for landslides that aren’t caused by earthquakes, AB 986, failed.

RPV also dabbled with creating a joint powers authority where two or more public agencies come together to combine resources to coordinate services. Examples include clean power alliances like the Orange County Power Authority, and the California Community Housing Agency. But, under California law, JPAs cannot provide insurance options to private property owners.

Why the new effort matters

Rancho Palos Verdes is not the only city grappling with lack of landslide insurance for its residents. Cities mostly along the coast including Dana Point, Malibu, Laguna Beach and San Clemente have dealt with infrastructure damage due to coastal erosion over the years. San Clemente, a beach town reliant on foot traffic, has had to close public access to some of its beaches due to increased coastal erosion. Recurring landslides in the city have also disrupted coastal rail service.

Some counties including Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Diego also voiced their support for measures like the failed AB 986.

So what's the proposed solution?

Rancho Palos Verdes hopes to push state legislators to create a program similar to the California Earthquake Authority and the California FAIR Plan.

The state legislature created the California Earthquake Authority to provide optional earthquake insurance after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which resulted in $20 billion in residential damages. Only half of the damages were covered by insurance. The CEA is a nonprofit that is managed by the state but privately funded through insurance premiums and represents about two-thirds of the residential earthquake market in California, according to Rancho Palos Verdes city staff.

The California Fair Plan was created in 1968 to offer insurance plans for homeowners who have trouble getting private insurance in areas that are prone to wildfires. It has grown to about 610,000 policies as of June 2025, a 154% increase since September 2021, as other insurance companies have canceled or stopped issuing new policies in California, citing growing wildfire risk. The plan is run by insurers who do business in the state but is not publicly managed.

Rancho Palos Verdes officials will be reaching out to other affected cities and counties to drum up support. They then plan to reach out to state legislators and the insurance commissioner by the end of the year.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Residents in parts of Boyle Heights may be eligible to have certain citations waived and benefit from relaxed parking enforcement through Sept. 30 following the Lineage warehouse fire. 

The change comes after small business owners shared with elected officials that they’ve been struggling with low foot traffic after the fire. Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, in a statement, said she hopes the new parking guidelines can “reduce unnecessary burdens” and make it “easier for customers to continue supporting neighborhood businesses during the recovery.”

Rosie Echeverria, a representative for Council District 14, informed the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council about the relaxed parking enforcement at its Aug. 26 meeting. She provided attendees with a map showing the original assistance area and an added expansion. (See the map below). 

“You should not be getting ticketed for meters. You should not be getting ticketed for overnight parking. You should not be ticketed for limited parking. For example, if it’s a ‘two-hour parking only’ and you end up staying three hours, you should not be getting a ticket for that,” Echeverria said.

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation said it would not enforce certain parking restrictions through Sept. 30. Here’s what you need to know. 

Where the parking relief applies

Relaxed enforcement applies to eligible violations in the designated fire-affected areas. Enforcement is relaxed daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.  

Original area (eligible for violations issued July 29 to Sept. 30)

A map shows relaxed parking enforcement areas.

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Jackie Ramirez made with Atlist

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The area bounded by: 

• Boyle Avenue
• Cesar Chavez Avenue
• Lorena Street
• Olympic Boulevard

Expanded area (eligible for violations issued Aug. 17 to Sept. 30)

A map shows an extended area of relaxed parking enforcement.

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Jackie Ramirez made with Atlist

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The original boundaries, plus the area bounded by: 

• Soto Street
• Cincinnati Street 
• Evergreen Avenue
• Cesar Chavez Avenue 
• This includes Mott Street and Fickett Street, but excludes Forest Avenue

What parking enforcement is covered and what is not

Under this effort, the L.A. Department of Transportation is not enforcing parking restrictions related to:

• Street meter parking
• Residential street sweeping zones
• Time limit restrictions, such as two-hour parking zones
• Areas designating no parking between certain time frames
• Overnight, oversize and preferential parking districts 

The effort, however, does not suspend all parking enforcement, according to Jurado’s office. Areas that remain fully enforceable include: 

• Red zones 
• Bus zones
• Handicapped zones
• “No Parking Anytime” zones
• “No Stopping Anytime” zones
• All temporary “No parking” or “No stopping zones”
• White curbs
• Alleys and sidewalks

Where to get help with a citation

Residents who believe they received a citation in error may contact Jurado’s Boyle Heights field office at 323-526-9332 and ask for the small business liaison.

The L.A. Department of Transportation said that if someone believes a citation was issued in error and would like to contest it, they can contact the Parking Violations Bureau online or by phone at 866-561-9742. 

L.A. Documenter Yliana Roland contributed to this story. L.A. Documenters trains and pays L.A. residents to take notes at local government meetings around Los Angeles. You can find meeting notes and audio at losangeles.documenters.org