The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed a motion on June 23 by Supervisor Janice Hahn, 4th District, to improve public access to alternative crisis response teams when armed law enforcement may not be appropriate.

“We are asking our law enforcement officers to take on too many challenges that they are not necessarily trained for whether that be mental health crises, homelessness or substance abuse,” Hahn said. “There are situations where an unarmed trained professional would be a more appropriate response in a crisis than a law enforcement officer and we need to make sure L.A. County residents can call these expert teams when they need help.”

Hahn said while there are instances when law enforcement officers are the most appropriate responders, there are also many scenarios when they are not. For example, calls for health and human services crises related to mental health, substance abuse, physical health and homelessness may be better served in most cases by a non-law enforcement response team with appropriate training and expertise, like the county’s Psychiatric Mobile Response Team or the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority Emergency Outreach Team. When people need help during a crisis, they often call 911 and receive a law enforcement response.

On June 23, the board unanimously approved Hahn’s motion calling for the county Human Services Crisis Response Coordination Steering Committee to report back within three months on the feasibility of establishing a unique phone number for non-law enforcement health and human services crisis responses, and reconfiguring 911 to more effectively triage calls that may be better suited for a response by health and human services experts.