The Brief

Members of a University of Southern California program are developing an AI program meant to help law enforcement agencies improve their interactions with the communities they serve.

The Everyday Respect Project partnered with the Los Angeles Police Department to analyze body camera footage of 1,000 random traffic stops. Now, they are using what they have found to train an AI model to look through countless hours of videos for critical elements of good policing — respect and de-escalation.

Benjamin Graham is an associate professor of political science at USC and helps to manage the project, which is being conducted by a team of professors, students and members of the community.

 ”LAPD conducts, give or take, a thousand stops a day,” Graham told LAist. He said those stops lead to thousands upon thousands of hours of body camera footage.

In most cases, Graham said, the body camera videos are uploaded to the cloud and never seen. He said only an automated program could sort through this rich source of data, analyze it and reveal the stories it holds.

With AI able to look through this data, Graham said police and sheriffs departments across the country could identify officers who are best able to communicate respectfully during traffic stops to be given promotions or training positions. They also could find the best techniques for officers to bring down the temperature in high-stress situations.

Georgetown University, the University of California, Riverside, and the University of Texas at Austin also are working with USC on the project.

What they’ve found so far

Graham told LAist researchers spoke with a wide range of community stakeholders, including community organizations that are critical of law enforcement and working police officers, to understand different perspectives of what separates a good traffic stop from a bad one.

They heard from thousands of Angelenos through surveys and interviews, reviewed LAPD training materials and rode along with officers on the streets. Graham said they focused on those diverse community perspectives throughout the project.

“ We have former law enforcement officers who are annotating this data,” he told LAist. “We have individuals who have been arrested before, and we have a lot of Angelenos from ... a range of ages, races, genders, professional backgrounds.”

Graham presented some of the Everyday Respect Project’s findings to the L.A. Board of Police Commissioners on Dec. 16.

He said researchers involved in the project analyzed 500 traffic stops in which LAPD officers conducted searches of the drivers they pulled over and another 500 stops in which there were no searches.

They found in cases when no search was conducted, some drivers were treated differently by officers based on their perceived race and wealth.

Researchers found that Black drivers were treated with more respect than Hispanic drivers. White drivers were pulled over least often, and the researchers did not find a significant difference between how white and non-white drivers were treated.

Of drivers who were stopped by police but weren’t searched, the researchers found those who were perceived as more wealthy also were treated with more respect by officers.

They did not find significant differences in how drivers were treated due to perceived race or wealth in stops in which searches were conducted.

Across all stops, the researchers found the more respect they perceived an officer showing to a driver they pulled over, the more legitimate the researchers would tend to rate the stop overall.

The LAPD has not responded to LAist’s request to comment on these findings.

Training AI to tell good traffic stops from bad

After analyzing and manually taking detailed notes on the first 1,000 traffic stops, Graham said the researchers are using what they’ve found to build an AI tool that can do the same thing — but is able to cover vastly more data and is accessible free of charge for any law enforcement agency.

To do this, Graham said team members use their notes as training data for the AI model.

By having humans label a number of things that happened or didn’t happen in videos of traffic stops, Graham told LAist, the AI model they are developing can learn to predict what humans will say about other videos.

“You're trying to train a model to do the same job that a human being does when it watches the video,” he said.

These notes include things like whether a search happened and at what time, whether officers explained the reason for the stop, if the driver complied with requests from the officer and any efforts by officers to de-escalate tense situations.

Graham said other companies have been working on AI tools to sell to departments, as well, but that the Everyday Respect Project is unique in its effort to build community perspectives into the program that will be fully open-source and open-science.

That means anyone can see exactly how the program works and the research behind it.

What could be coming next?

Graham said the Everyday Respect Project will be working through the winter and spring to improve the AI model and use it to analyze more LAPD bodycam videos. Then they will present their new findings to the police commissioners and release their AI model to the public.

It still is uncertain whether LAPD will use the Everyday Respect Project’s AI program once it is completed, but Captain Shannon White of LAPD’s Strategic Planning and Policies Division told the police commission Dec. 16 that the department looks forward to using the group’s research to spark “actionable change within the department.”

The LAPD has not responded to LAist’s questions about whether or how it will use the AI program once it is made available.

Graham told LAist other departments have shown interest in continuing to work with the Everyday Respect Project and the program in the future.

He said they may soon be working with the Rochester Police Department in New York on a trial to find the most effective de-escalation techniques for officers.

“ That's an incredible piece of learning that we can bring to improve policing, to improve officer safety, community safety, the whole nine yards,” Graham told LAist.

As Los Angeles homeowners grapple with the expense of rebuilding after last year’s devastating fires, an L.A. City Councilmember is putting forward an idea that could lower some costs.

Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Pacific Palisades, has introduced a motion to explore waiving part of the city’s portion of the local sales tax for fire victims who purchase rebuilding materials in the city.

The 1% of the local 9.75% sales tax that goes into the city’s general fund would be given back to consumers under the proposal. The waiver could apply to lumber, appliances and other rebuilding goods purchased within the city.

The motion, introduced Friday by Park and seconded by Councilmember John Lee, says: “The City should do everything within its power to alleviate the financial burden for these residents and businesses in order to facilitate their return and stabilize the Pacific Palisades community.”

Would it make much of a difference? 

Economists told LAist the proposal could help many homeowners mitigate the high cost of rebuilding, but likely wouldn’t tip the scales for under-insured, under-resourced property owners.

“It wouldn't hurt if it's very well designed and easy to use,” said Alexander Meeks, a director at the Santa Monica-based Milken Institute. “But I'm not sure if it's really going to tackle the scale of the financial challenge that survivors are facing.”

Meeks noted that the tax waiver wouldn’t lower up-front costs such as environmental testing, architectural design and permitting. And it may not help homeowners sourcing raw materials from outside the city.

Zhiyun Li, a UCLA Anderson School of Management economist, said the waiver could help some homeowners justify the additional cost of rebuilding more fire-safe structures.

“Homeowners must typically pay out of pocket to upgrade to IBHS+ standards, which are more stringent,” Li said. “The tax waiver could encourage upgrading to IBHS+ standards or investing more in mitigation, thereby reducing future risk and improving the likelihood of maintaining insurance coverage.”

What’s next for the proposal? 

The proposed tax relief would not be available to properties that have been sold since the fires started in January 2025.

The motion has been sent to the City Council’s budget and fire recovery committees. If approved by the full council, it would require the city administrative officer, the Office of Finance and the city attorney to report back to the council within 60 days on options for crafting a tax relief plan.

The motion calls for the report to consider factors such as how to minimize the burden of administering the tax relief, what documentation homeowners would have to submit and what it would cost the city to oversee the program.

Senate and House Republican leadership have resurrected a stalled plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security after a record 47-day funding lapse.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a joint statement on Wednesday that the House will take up a measure passed by the Senate last week to fund most of DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the end of September.

Republicans would then attempt to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years using a party-line budget reconciliation bill that would not require support from Democrats.

"In following this two-track approach, the Republican Congress will fully reopen the Department, make sure all federal workers are paid, and specifically fund immigration enforcement and border security for the next three years so that those law-enforcement activities can continue uninhibited," Thune and Johnson wrote.

The agreement comes nearly a week after House Republicans dismissed an identical plan, refusing to take up the Senate-passed measure and instead passing a 60-day short term funding bill for all of DHS that had little chance of overcoming Democratic opposition in the Senate.

Johnson called the agreement a "joke" and President Donald Trump declined to publicly endorse the deal. Trump had previously resisted any package that did not include his push to overhaul federal elections known as the Save America Act.

"I think any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy with it," Trump told reporters last week.

Democrats welcomed the agreement as in line with their pledge not to give ICE any more money without reforms after immigration enforcement agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. But the deal does not include any of the policy demands Democrats are pressing for, such as a ban on masks for immigration enforcement officers and requiring warrants issued by a judge, not just the agency, to enter homes.

"For days, Republican divisions derailed a bipartisan agreement, making American families pay the price for their dysfunction," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a statement Wednesday. "Throughout this fight, Senate Democrats never wavered."

Trump seemed to bless the revived plan earlier Wednesday, writing on social media that he wants a party-line bill to fund immigration enforcement on his desk by June 1.

"We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won't be able to stop us," Trump wrote.

Despite the shutdown, ICE has been minimally impacted because Republican lawmakers approved $75 billion for ICE through another party-line budget reconciliation bill last year.

Congress is on a two-week recess, but the Senate and House could move to fund all of DHS except ICE and CBP as early as Thursday using a procedure known as unanimous consent that allows the chambers to circumvent formal voting as long as no member objects.

Even during a recess when most members are not in Washington, this could be unpredictable, especially in the House, where many hard-line conservatives oppose a deal that does not fully fund DHS.

"Let's make this simple: caving to Democrats and not paying CBP and ICE is agreeing to defund Law Enforcement and leaving our borders wide open again," Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, wrote on X. "If that's the vote, I'm a NO."

If a member does object, that could require waiting for another vote when all members are back from recess.

Claudia Grisales contributed reporting.
Copyright 2026 NPR

California clocked its second-worst snowpack on record Wednesday, a potentially troubling signal ahead for fire season.

It’s an alarming end to a winter that saw abnormally dry conditions briefly wiped from California’s drought map in January, for the first time in a quarter-century.

Though precipitation to date has been near average, much of it fell as rain rather than snow. Then March’s record-breaking heat melted most of the snow that remains. The state’s major reservoirs are nevertheless brimming above historic averages and are flirting with capacity, and a smattering of snow, rain and thunderstorms are dousing last month’s heat wave.

But experts now warn that California’s case of the missing snowpack could herald an early fire season in the mountains.

On Wednesday, state engineers conducting the symbolic April 1 snowpack measurement at Phillips Station south of Lake Tahoe found no measurable snow in patches of white dotting the grassy field.

“I want to welcome you call to probably one of the quickest snow surveys we’ve had — maybe one where people could actually use an umbrella,” joked Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources. “We’re getting a lot of questions about are we heading into a hydrologic drought? The answer is, I don’t know.”

State data reports that California’s snowpack is closing out the season at an alarming 18% of average statewide, and an even more abysmal 6% of average in the northern mountains that feed California’s major reservoirs.

Only the extreme drought year of 2015 beat this year’s snowpack for the worst on record, measuring in at just 5% of average on April 1st, when the snow historically is at its deepest.

“I think everyone's anticipating that it will be a long, busy fire season,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network.

“Without a snowpack, and with an early spring, it just means that there’s much more time for something like that to happen.”

‘It’s pretty bizarre up here’ 

In the city of South Lake Tahoe, which survived the massive Caldor Fire in the fall of 2021 without losing any structures, fire chief Jim Drennan said his department is already ramping up prevention efforts.

“It's pretty bizarre up here right now. It really seems like June conditions more than March,” Drennan said. “People are already turning the sprinklers on for their lawns.”

Without more precipitation, an early spring may complicate prescribed burning efforts. But Drennan said fire agencies in the Tahoe basin can start mechanically clearing fuels from forest areas earlier than usual.

“That means we can get more work done,” he said.

It also means homeowners need to start hardening their homes now, said Martin Goldberg, battalion chief and fuels management officer for the Lake Valley Fire Protection District, which protects unincorporated communities in the Lake Tahoe Basin’s south shore.

Goldberg urges residents to scour their yards for burnable materials, create defensible space and reach out to local fire departments with questions. The risks are widespread — from firewood, wooden fences, gas cans, plants, pine needles — even lawn furniture stacked against a house.

“In years past, I wouldn't even think of raking and clearing until May,” Goldberg said. “But my yard's completely cleared of snowpack, and it has been for a couple weeks now.”

‘A haystack fire’

Battalion chief David Acuña, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, said fire season is shaped by more than just one year’s snowpack.

Climate change has been remaking California’s fire seasons into fire years. And California’s recent average to abundant water years have fueled what Acuña called “bumper crops of vegetation and brush.”

“Most of California is like a haystack. And if you’ve ever seen a haystack fire, they burn very intensely because there's layers of fuel,” Acuña said.

Like Quinn-Davidson, Acuña wasn’t ready to make specific predictions about fires to come.

But John Abatzoglou, a professor of climatology at UC Merced, said the temperatures and snowpack conditions this year offer a glimpse of California in the latter decades of this century, as fossil fuel use continues to drive global temperatures higher.

How this year’s fires will play out will depend on when, where and how wind, heat, fuel and ignitions combine. But it foreshadows the consequences of a warmer California for water and fire under climate change.

“This,” Abatzoglou said, “is yet another stress test for the future in the state.”

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