Mariana Dale
explores and explains the forces that shape how and what kids learn from kindergarten to high school.
Published December 12, 2023 5:00 AM
(
Adriana Pera
/
LAist
)
Topline:
From bossa nova to EDM, and metal to jazz, the catalog of music enjoyed by Los Angeles teens is boundless. But their 2023 soundtracks were about more than “vibes.” Their musical interests connected them to friends, family, language and helped them start to answer the perpetual question of who they are in the world.
TikTok discovery: The platform is a contemporary hitmaker, but it also resurfaces much older music. San Fernando High School Senior Jocelin Mateos immersed herself in the alternative, emo, and punk scene after hearing a clip of a hit 2012 song from aughts band Pierce the Veil. “That was a turning point for me where I started finding what I liked in music,” Mateos said.
A deeper connection: This year West High School senior Haruto Asami almost exclusively listened to Japanese pop. He’s “sufficiently fluent” in the language after taking classes through elementary and middle school. The music is a continuing education— even his parents have noticed changes in his vocabulary. “The rest of my family actually all live in Japan,” Asami said. “Losing Japanese would be sort of losing a way of communication with [them.] I realized, like, how important it is to keep that connection.”
Listen to the playlist: We compiled favorites from more than a dozen students, not every track came out in 2023 and the surprising throwbacks were some of our favorite contributions.
Listen
3:44
For ‘More Vibes,’ Listen To Music Like An LA High School Student
From bossa nova to EDM, and metal to jazz, the catalog of music enjoyed by Los Angeles teens is boundless.
“I feel like this year, over every other year, I've listened to a lot more genres that I wouldn't have imagined myself listening to,” said Dorsey High School junior Alison Gonzalez. While, according to Spotify Wrapped, her top artist was Bad Bunny, all of her top songs were by regional Mexican artist Ivan Cornejo.
For her it’s the “mellow vibe” of the Riverside-born 19-year-old's voice and guitar. We talked to more than a dozen Los Angeles high school students from the San Fernando Valley to the South Bay (and one in the San Jacinto Mountains). They told us about the music that wakes them up in the morning, that powers them through chores and pre-calculus homework.
But their 2023 soundtracks were about more than “vibes.” Their musical interests connected them to friends, family, language and helped them start to answer the perpetual question of who they are in the world.
Their stories offer ideas on how we all might listen to music with fresh ears.
A few recommendations:
For cleaning the house: "Así Soy" by Santa Fe Klan
“It's that one really energetic song out of my playlist,” said Dorsey High School junior Alison Gonzalez. It's a good backdrop while she picks up after her younger siblings. “Because if I'm listening to something sad, then it's like, I'm not going to want to clean no more.”
For a new take on jazz: "California and Me" by Laufey
The Icelandic artist topped the listening habits for two of the high schoolers interviewed for this story. San Fernando Senior High School junior Jesse Cordero liked the orchestral arrangement on this song.
For a peppy morning: "OMG" by NewJeans
"It sounds almost fresh,” said West High School junior Jacob Benavente of the hit from the new K-pop powerhouse.
Most students LAist talked to listed TikTok as one of the primary trailheads for their 2023 musical explorations.
“I hear the little viral clip of the song and then I look it up and I listen to the rest of it,” said West High School junior Jacob Benavente. “I get sent down a rabbit hole of music.”
Sometimes the algorithm reinforced what they already liked.
Dorsey High School junior Genessis Granados first heard “Light” by Korean rock band Wave To Earth from a friend. “It's a chill song,” Granados said. ”And it got viral on TikTok…so I couldn't just stop listening to it.”
But the platform is also re-surfacing much older music.
San Diego brothers Mike and Vic Fuentes formed Pierce the Veil in the aughts, but until February of this year, they hadn’t published new music since 2016. That hiatus didn’t stop people from making their 2012 track “King For A Day” blow up last year — scream-lipsyncing it into bottles of nail polish remover, cans of energy drinks, and other makeshift microphones.
San Fernando High School Senior Jocelin Mateos saw one of those clips and has since immersed herself in the alternative, emo, and punk scene.
“That was a turning point for me where I started finding what I liked in music,” Mateos said. “That was the first time I kind of connected with music in a way where I was just like blown away completely.”
"A lot of the time the alternative community is just judged by how they look," said San Fernando Valley student Jocelin Mateos. "But a lot of times, a lot of people are nice."
(
Mariana Dale
/
LAist
)
But don't forget about the real world
Dorsey High School Senior Leo Mejia passed a head-banging, headphone-wearing stranger while walking through downtown L.A. with his mom earlier this year.
“He was like, ‘Hey man, you should listen to the song that I'm listening to,’” so Mejia started taking down the songs on his playlist, including one by Swedish death metal band Grotesque.
“I was like, ‘OK, cool. Thanks.’ And then that was it,” Mejia said.
The screaming and guitar riffs motivate him through exercise, or racing to finish homework.
“If it's due, like, in 10 minutes, then I also listen to very aggressive songs,” Mejia said. “But if it's due like the next day or [in] like a whole month, I listen to more jazz songs.” The standard “Misty” was a favorite of his this year.
Connect to the people you love
About two years ago, Jesse Cordero’s grandmother bought him a baby blue record player for Christmas and he picked out ABBA’s 1979 album “Voulez-Vous” to go with it.
Chiquitita has been on repeat all year— “It's literally the best.” The rousing piano outro buoys what starts out as a song about heartbreak and sorrow.
West High School senior Yumiko Kasai's love of music extends to extracurriculars. She is the marching band drum major. "Whatever I do, my intention behind it is, 'oh, it's to make our group stronger, and our sense of unity stronger," Kasai said. "I think that's what helps me as a leader."
(
Mariana Dale
/
LAist
)
Fellow senior Haruto Asami is the woodwind captain of the marching band. "I wanted to be part of the leadership team because of the way that they were able to welcome me and make me feel like part of the family when I came into the program," Asami said.
(
Mariana Dale
/
LAist
)
This year, West High School senior Haruto Asami almost exclusively listened to Japanese pop.
The song “115万キロのフィルム” or “1.15 Million Kilometer Film” describes a love story through the metaphor of a film.
“With just such a short amount of time in the song, I kind of found it fascinating with how much of a story you can create out of it and how much emotion you can get out of it,” Asami said.
He’s “sufficiently fluent” in the language after taking classes through elementary and middle school. The music is a continuing education — even his parents have noticed changes in his vocabulary.
“The rest of my family actually all live in Japan,” Asami said. “Losing Japanese would be sort of losing a way of communication with [them.] I realized, like, how important it is to keep that connection.”
Fellow Torrance senior Yumiko Kasai also listened to a lot of J-pop, some contemporary and others from the ‘80s, courtesy of her mom.
“I haven't always liked the same music as my mom. Sometimes she would be listening to a song in the car, and I'd be like, ‘Can you skip it?’” Kasai said. (What teenager hasn’t said this to a parent?) “But, I think for the, like, ‘80s Japanese music, I listened to a lot of it during quarantine, so like 2020, 2021, and it kind of grew on me and it became one of my most favorite genres.”
Music is "an all the time thing" for Dorsey High School junior Alison Gonzalez. Her tastes range from The Beach Boys to regional Mexican music and rap. "This year, over every other year, I've listened to a lot more genres that I wouldn't have imagined myself listening to," Gonzalez said.
(
Courtesy Alison Gonzalez
)
Dorsey High School junior Genessis Orruego’s dad moved to Kansas about two years ago.
“I really missed our car rides, because we would just talk and talk, and he wouldn't, like, judge me for whatever I was talking about,” Orruego said. Often it’d be Nirvana or Bruno Mars.
According to Spotify, she listened to the 2012 Mars song “If I Knew” more than 500 times last year— that’s more than 18 hours of contemplative croning — “which is kind of scary,” Orruego said.
Orruego is part of a student band and they’re currently learning another Mars track, “Locked Out of Heaven.”
“Just to show my dad, like, ‘oh, look at the song I performed,’” Orruego said.
Find your peace
Music helped John Marshall High School senior Lianne Thompson navigate a challenging junior and senior year.
“I was doing stuff that I didn't like and I didn't feel like myself,” Thompson said. She’s stopped drawing, doing her homework, “peer pressure stuff.”
“I just wanted to be alone, and I wanted to just, like, focus on my peace,” Thompson said. ”It sounds very cheesy, but it worked.”
Thompson said playing guitar, saxophone, reading poetry and song lyrics, helped her reconnect to herself. She also started making electronic music and in September founded a club to collaborate with others.
“I don't want to sound too prestigious or whatever, but it kind of turned into like a big thing,” Thompson said.
Between 10 and 20 students meet Thursdays in a classroom near the Los Feliz school’s football field to share their thoughts and ideas about music production, rap, and hip hop.
She played a sample of a track inspired by English producer and DJ Fred Again.
“It makes me feel like, ‘Wow, I did that,'” Thompson said. “Making music not only inspires me to make more, but inspires me to do other stuff.”
Try new things
Taj’i Draper thought rock music was terrible until he started playing drums and guitar at Dorsey High School about a year ago.
“Music, like rock and screamo and stuff, you have to have a very open mind… it isn't what you would normally, like, hear on the radio,” Draper said. “That allows you to have more of an open mind for different art forms.”
"I'm always trying to like, find more things and expand my tastes," said Idyllwild Arts Academy sophomore Silas Potma. "Constantly looking outward and finding new things has helped me discover a lot of things I really like now."
(
Courtesy Silas Potma
)
Silas Potma said his music reflects a larger appetite for the new and interesting.
“I'm always trying to like, find more things and expand my tastes,” said the Idyllwild Arts Academy sophomore. He discovered his favorite band of the year, The Garden, after an internet expedition prompted by a comment on an image Potma had saved to Pinterest.
Potma describes the genre-defiant Orange County band as “to-the-left-of-punk” with quirky sounds and lyrics like “I like cereal, but I ain't no serial killer.”
“I feel like there's maybe, like, maybe a few philosophical things in here, but it's pretty goofy most of the time,” Potma said.
This summer he saw the band live at The Observatory in Santa Ana. Twins Wyatt and Fletcher Shears performed in trademark white clown face paint in front of a larger-than-life jester puppet shambling about in the background.
“I think sometimes we think that we're really special and cool and like, unique and nobody gets us,” Potma said. “Seeing a bunch of other fans that like, are having a great time and have the same interests as you is really nice and like makes you feel more not alone.”
With a significant loss of jobs, entertainment professionals in L.A. are hurting these days. Many are turning to another profession, which also deals with people's emotions: therapy.
Why it matters: Last year there was a 16% decline in filming in the region, according to Film LA. For those seeking stability — without sacrificing authenticity — retraining as a therapist makes sense.
Why now: A psychology professor at Antioch University, Charley Lang, says at least half of his students in his graduate classes come from entertainment careers.
All you have to do is grab a drink with a friend, eavesdrop at a coffee shop, or open your eyes to see that entertainment professionals in L.A. are hurting these days. Last year there was a 16% decline in filming in the region, according to Film LA, and between 2022 and 2024, L.A. County is estimated to have lost more than 42,000 motion picture-related jobs.
I know this pain, personally. I was a TV writer for years, but my last writer’s room job was in 2021. Luckily, I was able to pivot to copywriting as I continue to work on my own projects, but I do wonder what the rest of my colleagues are up to. Where have the thousands of highly skilled entertainment professionals gone?
Turns out, school.
Specifically, to become therapists.
I first noticed this trend over a decade ago in 2013. I had just moved back to L.A. from New York and I started seeing a new therapist. Over the course of our sessions, she revealed to me that she used to be an actor — and quite a successful one. She was a co-star on a hit sitcom for nine seasons.
But despite the consistent work, she wasn’t fulfilled. She said acting was mostly sitting around in a trailer waiting and she craved more intellectual stimulation. So she went back to school and became a therapist, the irony being that she never fully escaped Hollywood. Today, as an L.A. based therapist, she spends most of her days listening to frustrated actors and writers complain about the biz. Ahh, the circle of life!
Not only was my therapist a former actor, I started to notice more and more of my peers and friends making the switch. I met Alan, 40, who prefers to be anonymous because he doesn’t want his patients knowing about his private life, at a co-working space. We both belonged to a charming apartment-turned-writer’s haven in Silver Lake.
At the time, Alan was a busy film producer, plugging away at his own feature script on the side. But despite having a shiny career working with hip actors and directors, he wasn’t happy.
He remembers going to schmoozy parties where everyone would name drop and brag about what they were working on.
“I had all those fancy things to drop, too, but it meant nothing, it didn’t make me feel any better about myself,” he said. “If I can’t even talk about what I’m up to without feeling sad, that’s kind of a problem.”
Alan started to realize maybe producing wasn’t his destiny. He was going through the motions. Things started to fall into place when he started therapy.
“Therapy made me feel more like myself. I just felt a little bit more enlivened… the rest of the week kind of deadened me,” he said.
He loved how real and deep the conversations were and became intrigued by the idea of becoming a therapist himself. He started taking a few psychology classes and was instantly hooked. Now, he has a thriving private practice and hasn’t looked back.
Primal emotions
Julie Mond is a therapist and an actor. Unlike Alan, Mond still loves acting, it’s not something she grew out of. She just needed a more stable career as she continued to pursue her passion. Becoming a therapist has actually liberated her to focus on the kind of acting she actually wants to do. Because she’s financially stable she can now pick and choose the kinds of projects that feel worth her time.
When I ask Mond why so many entertainment professionals become therapists she reflects on a couple of things. She said performers and directors crave “connecting authentically, being present moment-to-moment, being real and honest. We’re digging for these primal emotions.” All things you have to do as a therapist.
She also has another theory: “A lot of artists go to therapy. Many of us who become therapists have been in therapy and it's changed our lives. I think people in L.A. have been on a healing journey and want to give back.”
Charley Lang, who teaches at Antioch University.
(
Jaymes Mihaliak
/
Courtesy Charley Lang
)
Even though I'm personally meeting more people who are becoming therapists, I wondered if it was an actual trend or just a coincidence.
So I talked with psychology professor Charley Lang at Antioch University to get his take. Lang, who's been teaching psychology for 30 years, said that in his graduate classes, at least 50% of the students come from entertainment careers.
When I asked why they make the switch, he’s blunt: stability.
That’s why Lang himself became a therapist decades ago.
Lang was an actor on Broadway, but eventually hit a wall.
“I had a nice career as an actor, I essentially got to do everything I wanted to do," he said. "But then I was in my late 30s and I was like, ‘Do I always want to be praying for another guest spot on a sitcom in order to feel secure and OK?’”
Does he have any regrets or miss acting? On the contrary, he tells a story:
“I had become a therapist and stopped acting and a friend of mine was directing a play at the Ahmanson and he was like, ‘Please do this play.’ And I was able to figure it out and I was just dipping my toe back in to see what it was like and it was a six-week run of the play. And at the end of the first week I remember standing in the wings waiting to make my entrance and thinking, ‘Oh my god haven’t we already told this freaking story?’ It was like Groundhog Day. It was the same story over and over.”
As a therapist, he said he loves that every day is different.
The point isn’t that working in entertainment is bad and therapy is perfect. To me, the takeaway is that it’s never too late to make a change. That just because something used to work for you doesn’t mean you’re committed to doing it forever.
Or in Mond's case, maybe there is a way to continue doing what you love, but more sustainably.
In today’s fragile and volatile job market, it’s nice to know that you can always begin again. Just because a job or career ends, doesn’t mean your life is over.
If, in the future, I’m too fried, burnt out, or tired of the rollercoaster of being a writer, maybe I’ll embark on a second career.
A firecracker run-walk, art fairs galore, an Andy Warhol film and more of the best things to do this weekend.
Highlights:
Tony winner Jefferson Mays plays Salieri in director Darko Tresnjak’s (A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder) take on Peter Shaffer’s 1979 play, Amadeus, about the rivalry between Salieri and Mozart in 19th Century Vienna.
Spooky Foodie, aka Ansley Layne, is bringing her ghost stories and encouraging you to tell your own at Spooky Stories After Dark, a Moth-inspired storytelling competition night at The Wolves downtown.
It’s not every day you can screenSleep, the 1964 groundbreaking film by Andy Warhol, so take advantage and grab a ticket for an evening at the Marciano Art Foundation.
Usher in the Year of the Fire Horse with the annual Firecracker Run-Walk in Chinatown, plus a celebration with lion dances, music, a dog contest and more.
Folks, we’ve reached peak art-weird. There’s a group show opening Sunday in an abandoned Sizzler. I am not making this up. Get your fill at the art fairs around town — Frieze, The Other Art Fair, Butter and Felix, for starters — or explore some of the neighborhoods with galleries, like Melrose Hill, West Hollywood and the Arts District. You’re sure to see a lot. It’s almost like we live in a city where you could just wander around and randomly come across things.
If music is more your thing, Licorice Pizza has your go-tos. On Friday, German singer-songwriter and producer Monolink’s "The Beauty Of It All Tour" stops at The Wiltern, Brandi Carlile is with The Head And The Heart at the Forum and the Fiery Furnaces are at the Masonic Lodge. At the Peacock Theater, there’s an epic “Legends Of Hip Hop” bill with Big Daddy Kane, Kurtis Blow, Kool Moe Dee, Melle Mel & Scorpio from The Furious Five, Doug E. Fresh, KRS‐One and more. Saturday, experimental hip-hop group Clipping is at the Fonda, and the artist formerly known as June Marieezy — (((O))) — is at a cool new Chinatown venue called Pacific Electric. Or you can spend the whole weekend at Ace Mission Studios in Boyle Heights, immersed in Factory 93’s two-day underground techno festival, Skyline L.A.
Through Sunday, March 15 Pasadena Playhouse 39 S. El Molino, Pasadena COST: FROM $48; MORE INFO
(
Jeff Lorch
/
Pasadena Playhouse
)
Our friends at the L.A. Times called the new production of Amadeus at Pasadena Playhouse a “marvel to behold,” and I don’t think you can get a bigger rave than that. Tony winner Jefferson Mays plays Salieri in director Darko Tresnjak’s (A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder) take on Peter Shaffer’s 1979 play about the rivalry between Salieri and Mozart in 19th-century Vienna.
Spooky Stories After Dark
Saturday, February 28, 7 p.m. The Wolves 519 S. Spring St., Downtown L.A. COST: FREE, TWO DRINK MINIMUM; MORE INFO
One of my favorite L.A. Instagram follows is Spooky Foodie, aka Ansley Layne, who goes to restaurants in L.A. and tells all about the ghosts haunting your favorite haunts. She’s bringing her ghost stories and encouraging you to tell your own at Spooky Stories After Dark, a Moth-inspired storytelling competition night at The Wolves downtown. After each story, the speaker will be interviewed by Spooky Foodie and co-host Your Cousin Trev. You can also expect some surprise celebrity guests.
Sleep, a film by Andy Warhol featuring John Giorno
Friday, February 27, 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Marciano Art Foundation 4357 Wilshire Blvd., Mid-Wilshire COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Film stills of John Giorno in Andy Warhol's Sleep. New York, NY, United States, 1963. Photo credit: Andy Warhol. 8 x 10 inches, b/w, photographic print.
(
Studio Rondinone/Courtesy of the John Giorno Collection, John Giorno Archives. Studio Rondinone, New York, NY.
/
Andy Warhol
)
It’s not every day you can screen Sleep, the 1964 groundbreaking avant-garde film by Andy Warhol, so take advantage and grab a ticket for this evening at the Marciano Art Foundation. Coinciding with their John Giorno: No Nostalgia show, the film is five hours and 21 minutes of artist and poet (and Warhol’s then-lover) John Giorno sleeping, so needless to say, you probably don’t need to be there the whole time. The galleries will be open throughout the entire screening, so it’s also a fun chance to see some late-night art!
Black History Greens Festival
Saturday, February 28, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Virginia Ave. Park 2200 Virginia Ave., Santa Monica COST: FREE; MORE INFO
(
Courtesy City of Santa Monica
)
Check out three greens-cooking demonstrations with local chefs at the Black History Greens Festival in Santa Monica. The day also features family activities, including book readings and giveaways, plus performances. KJLH radio’s Arron “BOBO” Arnell returns for a second year as the master of ceremonies, and DJ Dense will be spinning throughout the event.
48th L.A. Chinatown Firecracker-Lunar New Year Celebration
Saturday, February 28 to Sunday, March 1 943 Broadway (starting line), Chinatown COST: FREE; MORE INFO
(
Courtesy Firecracker 10K
)
Usher in the Year of the Fire Horse with the annual run/walk in Chinatown, plus a celebration with lion dances, music, a dog contest and more. Saturday features the long 20-mile run and century bike ride, while Sunday is a festival atmosphere with the 5K and 10K races, fun runs, kids' activities and more.
Opera Noir at L.A. Opera’s Akhnaten
Saturday, February 28, 7:30 p.m. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion 135 N. Grand Ave., Downtown L.A. COST: Opening night from $134, other performances from $44; MORE INFO
(
Craig T. Mathew
/
L.A. Opera
)
L.A. Opera welcomes back Philip Glass’ opera about ancient Egypt, Akhnaten, featuring John Holiday as the title king and mezzo-soprano Sun-Ly Pierce as his queen, Nefertiti. The opera is on at the Dorothy Chandler through March 22, but opening night is also Opera Noir, an event with the San Fernando Valley Chapter of Jack and Jill of America, which brings Black artistry and community together with opera. No matter which night you go, get there early for a pre-performance talk with Dr. Tiffany Kuo in Stern Grand Hall one hour before every performance.
Art Fairs
You have your pick of art fairs and related art events all weekend long. From the big Frieze Art Fair, which has been the jewel of L.A. Art Week since its launch here in 2019; to Felix, which makes a very cool use of space at the Hollywood Roosevelt; to The Other Art Fair in a new Culver City location (with art you might actually be able to afford for your wall); to the Black-artist focus of Butter in Inglewood, there’s really no shortage of places to see the newest artists’ work as well as old favorites.
Through Saturday, February 28 128 Fifth St., Santa Monica COST: $12; MORE INFO
Keep up with LAist.
If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.
A sunny day with highs in the mid-70s and low 80s.
(
Mel Melcon
/
Getty Images
)
QUICK FACTS
Today’s weather: Mostly sunny
Beaches: Mid-70s
Mountains: 70s to 80s at lower elevations
Inland: 81 to 86 degrees
Warnings and advisories: None
What to expect: Warmer for the valleys where temperatures there will hover in the mid- to upper 80s.
Read on ... for where it will be the hottest today.
QUICK FACTS
Today’s weather: Mostly sunny
Beaches: Mid-70s
Mountains: 70s to 80s at lower elevations
Inland: 81 to 86 degrees
Warnings and advisories: None
We're in for another warm and sunny day in SoCal.
Daytime highs for the beaches will reach the mid-70s and up to the low 80s more inland. Downtown L.A. will see temperatures up to 83 degrees.
Temperatures for the valley communities and the Inland Empire will reach the mid-80s. The western San Fernando Valley will see temps in the upper 80s, up to 89 degrees for Woodland Hills.
In Coachella Valley, expect another day with highs in the 90s, up to 96 degrees.
Friday is expected to be the warmest day of the week.
Kavish Harjai
writes about how people get around L.A. and the challenges they might face.
Published February 26, 2026 5:00 AM
A 2022 LAPD policy in part instructs officers to minimize stops for minor equipment violations.
(
Courtesy LAPD Valley Traffic Division via Twitter
)
Newly released data from the city show that Los Angeles police officers use minor traffic stops as a way to investigate Black and Latino people on suspicion of committing a more serious crime at a higher rate than their share of the citywide population.
Pretextual stops: Police sometimes use violations of the vehicle code to stop drivers and investigate them for a more serious crime unrelated to the traffic stop, such as possessing drugs or firearms. These are known as pretextual stops.
LAPD’s policy: In 2022, the LAPD adopted a policy that officers should only conduct pretextual stops when they are “acting upon articulable information” that the person is close to a serious crime that’s worth investigating.
Several reports: In the last month, two city departments released analyses of pretextual stops since the police adopted its policy. A nonprofit called Catalyst California did a broader analysis of minor traffic stops, too.
Read on … to see what the analyses found.
Newly released data from the city show that Los Angeles police officers use minor traffic stops as a way to investigate Black and Latino people on suspicion of committing a more serious crime at a higher rate than their share of the citywide population.
The LAPD adopted a policy about so-called pretextual stops and began tracking the practice in 2022.
In a report released at the end of January, the city’s chief legislative analyst found that Black people were involved in nearly 31% of pretextual stops conducted by LAPD officers between spring 2022 and fall 2025. According to 2023 Census estimates, Black people make up 8% of the city’s population.
According to the report, "Hispanic/Latino" people, who make up just less than half the city’s population, were the subjects of 56% of pretextual stops.
That analysis, along with a separate report by LAPD, found that of the more than 760,000 people involved in traffic stops between spring of 2022 and fall of 2025, 9% to 10% of them were stopped pretextually.
Chauncee Smith, an associate director of the racial justice-focused nonprofit Catalyst California, said LAPD’s data is “under inclusive” since it relies on officers subjectively deciding when a stop is pretextual.
He said an analysis of data from Catalyst California, published in February, demonstrates that pretextual stops don’t result in evidence discovery enough to make up for the negative impacts of the practice.
“It's affecting the lives of many Black and Latinx Angelenos on an everyday basis,” Smith said, adding that pretextual stops often result in harassment, dehumanization and excessive ticketing or fining of communities of color.
Pretextual stops
Police sometimes use violations of the vehicle code to stop drivers and investigate them for a more serious crime unrelated to the traffic stop, such as possessing drugs or firearms, according to Deepak Premkumar, a research fellow for the Public Policy Institute of California.
”Law enforcement officers see tons of violations, and we give them a lot of discretion to determine who they should stop and when,” Premkumar told LAist.
A plausible example of what a pretextual stop could look like is if police see a car matching the description of one that was involved in a crime in the area, then pull that car over for a broken taillight, Premkumar said.
The policy the LAPD adopted in 2022 outlines that officers:
Can only conduct pretextual stops as long as they are “acting upon articulable information” that the person is close to a serious crime that’s worth investigating.
Should minimize stops for minor equipment violations, such as broken taillights, unless the violation “interferes with public safety.”
State the reason for the stop, whether pretextual or not, while their body-worn cameras are filming.
Despite the adoption of the policy, Catalyst California’s analysis found that the proportion of all officer-initiated stops that are for minor traffic violations has “remained relatively constant since 2019.”
What to know about the recent analyses of pretextual stops
After the police adopted its policy in 2022, officers began indicating whether a stop was pretextual or not. The Chief Legislative Analyst and police department rely on this officer discretion in their analyses, which can be found in this council file. As a result, they say they don’t have a point of comparison for before the policy was adopted.
In its analysis, Catalyst California looked at all stops for minor traffic violations, which are the kind of traffic violations that are often used to start a pretextual stop. By combining that data with search data, Catalyst California endeavors to approximate a before-and-after look at the LAPD’s policy.
Racial disparities
The analysis from the city’s chief legislative analyst included a comparison of pretextual stop rates for different ethnic and racial groups in L.A. compared to their share of the citywide population.
The analysis found that "Hispanic/Latino" and Black people were overrepresented in data on pretextual stops compared to their share of the population.
L.A. Police Capt. Shannon White drafted the department’s report of the same data, which did not include an ethnic or racial breakdown of those involved in pretextual stops.
At a Los Angeles Police Commission Meeting in February, when she presented the department’s analysis, White said Census estimates for the city don’t necessarily align with “the actual breakdown of our suspects of crime,” who, theoretically, are the subjects of pretextual stops.
“When you look at the actual breakdown of our suspects of crime…what you will find is that they skew towards communities of color for various societal reasons,” White said.
According to the LAPD’s analysis, people in Central and South L.A. were subjects of pretextual at higher rates than in the Valley and West L.A.
Some commissioners at the meeting questioned that disparity.
“Something just doesn't add up,” Commission President Teresa Sánchez-Gordon said. “Is it racial profiling? Is that bias? Implicit, explicit bias that's in the report?”
Discovery rates
The police’s analysis found that searches during pretextual stops yielded contraband, such as firearms and other weapons or drugs, in about every 3 in 10 cases. “Narco-related” evidence is what’s most commonly found in the searches.
Catalyst California’s report looked more specifically at different kinds of searches and how likely they are to lead to evidence discovery.
The nonprofit found that since 2022, when officers used consent-only searches during stops for minor traffic violations, they discovered evidence 3% to 10% of the time. The rate was similarly low when the person stopped was on parole or probation.
How to reach me
If you have a tip, you can reach me on Signal. My username is kharjai.61.
You can follow this link to reach me there or type my username in the search bar after starting a new chat.
And if you're comfortable just reaching out by email I'm at kharjai@scpr.org
According to Catalyst California’s analysis, the type of search most likely to lead to discovery of evidence is when there’s an existing search or arrest warrant for the person stopped.
“This was likely because they occurred in situations when there was a higher likelihood of a significant violation, beyond mere pretext,” the nonprofit's researchers wrote.
