L.A. Council Members’ Survey Finds Most Want Changes to Public Safety

L.A. Council Members’ Survey Finds Most Want Changes to Public Safety

by Contributing Editor

Five members of the Los Angeles City Council released the results of a survey Thursday that showed about 75% of the more than 25,000 people who responded said they think public safety needs to be “reimagined.”

The survey released by Council President Nury Martinez and Councilmen Herb Wesson, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Bob Blumenfield and Curren Price, also reported more than half of the respondents support the City Council’s proposal to have unarmed trained specialists from a non-law enforcement agency respond to nonviolent 911 calls.

“I join my colleagues in thanking all who took the time to participate in our public safety survey, and in particular, I want to thank all those people from impacted communities who joined our three virtual meetings,” Martinez said. “These people called in from South Los Angeles to the Northeast San Fernando Valley and shared incredible insight, deeply personal, and sometimes painful stories because they want to push this conversation forward knowing our decisions will affect them the most.”

The proposal instructs city staff to work with the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles Housing Services Authority, the county Department of Mental Health and other relevant government service providers to develop an unarmed model of crisis response.

In addition to the survey, the council members hosted community conversations via Zoom that drew an average audience of about 300 people per conversation in which participants were encouraged to express their opinions.

“This summer, the people have demanded that we address and rethink a public safety system that has not been making many of us feel safe,” Wesson said. “As we reimagine public safety in Los Angeles, it’s so important that we hear directly from the people who are dealing with these issues on a daily basis. We need to get this right, and to do that the community needs to have a seat at the table. These conversations are the first of many to come.”

More than 87% of respondents said they live within the city of Los Angeles.

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All credit goes to Contributing Editor
Originally published on https://mynewsla.com