LOS ANGELES—Los Angeles could soon have an Office of Unarmed Response and Safety to streamline efforts to respond to non-violent situations with a services-led approach rather than armed police officers, under a motion introduced Aug. 24 by seven council members.
The effort, led by Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, would build on previous council plans to create unarmed crisis-response models.
A motion introduced in the summer of 2020 following the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody called for non-violent calls to be diverted from the Los Angeles Police Department.
The goal of Wednesday’s motion—also supported by Council President Nury Martinez and members Monica Rodriguez, Kevin de León, Bob Blumenfield, Curren Price, and Nithya Raman, is to unite existing initiatives and implement a citywide unarmed response model….