Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Thursday ordered an independent review of the Los Angeles Police Department’s response to people in mental or behavioral crisis, escalating scrutiny of how officers handle high-risk encounters. The review will examine all cases over the past five years in which LAPD used force against someone in crisis and the person died or suffered serious injury.
Bass said decades of underinvestment in mental health left police as the default first responders, creating a cycle that sends people from the street to the emergency room and then to jail. She said the city should assess whether officers have the training and tools needed to save lives.
The order comes as Bass faces Councilmember Nithya Raman in the Nov. 3 runoff, after Bass failed to win outright in the June 2 primary. It is the first time since 2005 that an incumbent Los Angeles mayor has been forced into a runoff.
The directive also says recommendations are due within six months of the contract being signed, which means any report would likely land early in the next mayoral term if the contract process begins now. City Hall sees the move as either a necessary administrative step on a long-running public safety issue or a political statement by a mayor trying to highlight reform ahead of Election Day.
