The Brief

When a person living with mental illness is in crisis — the kind that requires some kind of intervention — it’s often better for a clinician to respond than law enforcement.

That’s because the mere presence of a police officer or sheriff’s deputy can escalate the potential danger for all involved, according to use-of-force experts. And those encounters can turn deadly.

The Los Angeles Police Department, like agencies in many cities around the country, provides training for its officers on de-escalation tactics, but the shootings keep happening despite efforts to provide alternative response teams that include mental health clinicians. An LAist analysis of LAPD data showed that since 2017, 31% of people shot at by police were perceived by officers to be living with some kind of mental illness or in crisis.

There are psychiatric emergency teams in cities throughout L.A. County. But the teams differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction on composition and approach.

In both the city and county of L.A., it can be hard to keep track of the different types of alternative response teams that can be called to respond when someone is in crisis. Here’s a breakdown of what’s available:

City of L.A.: Unarmed Crisis Response Pilot Program

The city partnered with three local nonprofit organizations — Exodus Recovery, Alcott Center and Penny Lane Centers — to provide two response teams in each of three service areas spread across L.A. The teams are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the Police Department’s Devonshire, Wilshire and Southeast service areas.

The teams are dispatched from 911 call centers when appropriate.

Crisis response workers have training in de-escalation techniques, mental health, substance use, conflict resolution and more, according to a report from the Office of City Administrative Officer. They don’t have the authority to order psychiatric holds for people in crisis, but can work to find local help and follow up where appropriate.

City of L.A.: Crisis and Incident Response through Community-led Engagement (CIRCLE)

The CIRCLE program, run by nonprofit Urban Alchemy, involves a team of mental health professionals and staff with lived experience who respond to non-violent incidents 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.

Last year, Mayor Karen Bass noted that CIRCLE, which launched in Hollywood and Venice in 2022, has since expanded to downtown L.A., South Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley.

Members of the public can access CIRCLE through the non-emergency line at (877) 275-5273 or (877) ASK-LAPD. Choose the non-emergency dispatch option.

City of L.A.: SMART units 

Two-person teams that fall under the Police Department’s Mental Evaluation Unit are made up of an LAPD officer and a clinician from the county Department of Mental Health. The teams respond to mental-health related calls along with patrol officers whenever possible.

Officers who are already on scene can request a SMART unit if they feel a person they are trying to contact is living with mental illness or in crisis. SMART, which stands for Systemwide Mental Assessment Response Team, responded to “less than a third” of mental health-related calls in 2022, according to department records. Historically, the program has struggled to hire enough clinicians to meet demand, according to LAPD officials.

L.A. County: Psychiatric Mobile Response Teams

These two-person teams of clinicians will likely be the response you get if you call the county Department of Mental Health directly to request help someone in crisis. They do not show up with weapons. However, if a person in crisis is placed on a psychiatric hold and is unwilling to go into care, the clinicians may call for assistance from law enforcement.

To reach the Department of Mental Health for services and support, call (800) 854-7771. In the event of a mental health, substance abuse or suicide crisis, you can call or text 988.

L.A. County Sheriff’s Mental Evaluation Teams

The sheriff’s Mental Evaluation two-person teams are made up of a sheriff’s deputy and a clinician from the Department of Mental Health. The teams are specially trained to de-escalate mental health crises.

California Democrats are targeting a handful of vulnerable GOP state legislators in hopes of flipping their seats blue.

What are their chances? Tuesday’s election results will offer an early clue.

Embattled Republicans from Sacramento to San Diego have drawn a crowded field of Democratic challengers. The primary, where the top two vote-getters advance to the general election regardless of party, will decide which Democrats will face off against those GOP incumbents in November.

Democrats in those competitive districts are banking on President Donald Trump’s waning popularity and the impact of his policies — chiefly high tariffs, immigration crackdowns and the war in Iran — to hurt Republicans. To fend off the challenges, GOP incumbents have tried to keep Trump’s name at a distance while appealing to their base of Trump loyalists.

In Riverside County, expect a rematch between Assemblymember Leticia Castillo, a Corona Republican, and Democratic Riverside City Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes, who lost two years ago by a razor-thin margin despite amassing a significant war chest. Tonight’s election will likely foreshadow the results in November, when the two will meet again for a final matchup.

In the Coachella Valley, three Democrats are vying to unseat GOP Assemblymember Jeff Gonzalez of Coachella, who has adopted a more moderate perspective on immigration than his fellow Republican colleagues. Similarly, in three other purple districts, from northern Sacramento County to Orange County, tonight’s election will test the Republicans’ popularity.

Democrats are also playing defense in Southern California: Sen. Catherine Blakespear, an Encinitas Democrat, faces Republican challenger Laura Bassett tonight in the toss-up district in San Diego County.

In some of California’s deepest blue corners, Democrats running for open seats are fighting each other to break through. In the coastal Southern California district that includes Malibu and Santa Monica, half a dozen Democrats are vying to succeed Sen. Ben Allen, who is running for insurance commissioner. In Los Angeles, a fierce five-way race has split some of the most powerful labor unions and Democratic groups to replace Democratic Assemblymember Mike Gipson, who will term out by the end of the year.

In San Diego, the race to replace GOP Sen. Brian Jones, who is also terming out, is a battle between two Republican factions that offers a glimpse into the future direction of the party: Will a moderate San Marcos city councilmember endorsed by Jones be more palatable than a far-right firebrand? We’ll find out.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Some elected offices are pit stops. California’s lieutenant governor is one of them.

Voting ends on Tuesday and voters are choosing between an unusually competitive roster of candidates for the No. 2 job in the state, an office few aspire to without one key disclaimer: It’s a step on their way to another job in politics.

The lieutenant governor wields little power beyond stepping in when the governor leaves the state. But it’s been used as a slingshot to the governor’s office before, by Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Gov. Gray Davis, and seeking the office is often a signal that its officeholder has higher political ambitions.

State Treasurer Fiona Ma, Newsom administration official Josh Fryday and former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs are the leading Democratic candidates in a top-two primary that will send two candidates on to the November general election. Fryday, who heads volunteer programs for the state, has amassed the biggest treasure chest — nearly $4 million — and is backed by teachers unions and the governor.

Ma, a longtime politician with deep roots in San Francisco, has endorsements from influential labor unions and has raised about $2.8 million. But her run for the second-highest statewide office is shadowed by 2021 sexual harassment allegations that Tubbs supporters have latched onto. Ma has called the allegation “frivolous”, but the state paid $350,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by one of her former employees.

Tubbs was among the first to announce his campaign in 2024. Once a progressive star, he rose to political stardom 10 years ago as a young big city mayor who piloted a guaranteed income program in Stockton. Ousted by a Republican newcomer, his political career seemed to fade and he went on to lead Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, an advocacy organization. It’s his first crack at public office since then, and he’s garnered support from progressive Democrats and the powerful union SEIU California.

Longtime state lawmaker Gloria Romero is the leading Republican. Romero spent 12 years representing east Los Angeles in the state Legislature as a Democrat. She switched parties in 2024.

Higher education at the forefront

The major Democratic candidates have struggled to set themselves apart on policy. Because the lieutenant governor sits on all three college governing boards, each has claimed they would work to make universities build more housing and lower tuition costs. This has included practical solutions from directing Federal Student Aid applicants to food assistance program CalFresh, to more far-fetched ones such as free tuition for in-demand programs such as nursing.

The lieutenant governor also sits on the commission responsible for millions of acres of public land. Fryday thinks identifying more undeveloped land to build student housing on will help lower tuition costs.

Ma wants Cal State universities, which rely heavily on state funding, to find other revenue sources through partnerships with private companies.

At an April candidate debate in Los Angeles, Tubbs said he supports freezing tuition but did not elaborate on how he would make up the loss in revenue.

Romero seeks greater transparency about faculty, salaries and housing allowances and would push for more student representation on the UC Board of Regents.

To set themselves apart, the Democrats have leaned on their distinct backgrounds. Fryday has made clean energy a core part of his campaign as a former executive of a clean energy organization started by billionaire gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer. Ma has framed the job as another bulwark against the Trump administration. Tubbs, who works as an unpaid economic adviser to Newsom, has focused on affordability and cutting tuition for low-income families.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

A quiet primary race for state superintendent of public instruction is winding down Tuesday, with no clear front-runner emerging from a wide field of well-qualified candidates for California’s top schools job.

Ten candidates — including several legislative veterans — are vying for the opportunity to oversee the state’s 10,000 public K-12 schools during a tumultuous time. Schools are grappling with AI in the classroom, budget uncertainty, declining enrollment, lackluster test scores and other challenges.

The job itself is also up in the air. Gov. Gavin Newsom in January proposed an overhaul of California’s school governance structure, with far fewer duties for the superintendent. Instead, the State Board of Education, an 11-member body appointed by the governor, and a newly appointed education commissioner would hold most of the decision-making power. The superintendent would act as more of a policy advocate.

The shift would streamline a cumbersome and often opaque bureaucracy, adding transparency and accountability, Newsom said. It would also align California with most other states. Candidates for the superintendent position blasted the proposal, saying it takes away power from voters and concentrates too much control with the governor’s office.

Newsom and the current superintendent, Tony Thurmond, are both termed out this year.

Charter schools are no longer a divisive issue

The race for superintendent — at times, in previous election cycles, one of the most expensive and contentious races on the ballot — has been unusually quiet this year. In the most recent poll, conducted in April, no candidate garnered more than 10% of voters’ support, and 32% of voters were undecided. As of last week, no candidate had raised more than a few hundred thousand dollars. That’s in contrast to the 2018 superintendent race between Thurmond and Marshall Tuck, a former charter school executive, which generated more than $50 million in donations.

But there have been a few surprises in the race. The California Teachers Association and its historic nemesis, the California Charter Schools Association, endorsed the same candidate: Richard Barrera, a San Diego Unified school board member who was little known outside San Diego until this year. Both groups cited his accomplishments on the school board and his commitment to public education.

The dual endorsement shows how much has changed in education debates. For the past two decades, charter schools have been the No. 1 division in the superintendent’s race, generating millions in campaign donations from both sides. This year the subject has barely been mentioned, probably because charter school enrollment appears to have plateaued and both types of schools are now dealing with the same issues.

Another surprise has been the popularity of Sonja Shaw, president of the Chino Valley Unified school board. Shaw made headlines in 2023 when she took on Thurmond over the privacy rights of transgender students, and has made anti-LGBTQ policies the focus of her campaign. In the April poll, she was tied with Barrera.

Other top candidates include: Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, former head of the Assembly education committee; Josh Newman, former head of the Senate education committee; Anthony Rendon, former speaker of the Assembly and a longtime early education program administrator; Nichelle Henderson, a Los Angeles Community College District board member, and Ainye Long, a teacher in San Francisco Unified.

The nonpartisan position pays $210,460 a year.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.