LAPD mental health teams should take lead at crisis events, city controller says

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

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

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

LAist has reached out to the police department for comment.

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

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

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

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

Background

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Recommendations

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

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

The controller also recommended the city and police department:

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