So the ad-hoc cmte on Police Reform concluded quickly & quietly after hearing the report back on alternative models for non-violent crisis response and public comment in support of keeping police out of responses to mental health crises. {some alt models: https://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2020/20-0769_rpt_CLA_09-18-2020.pdf} https://twitter.com/sahrasulaiman/status/1312132504170590208

In his opening remarks, CM Wesson was more genuinely enthusiastic than I might ever have heard him be, saying this was the 1st time he felt he was participating not only in forging important change, but setting an example for larger cities across the country to follow.

Wesson referenced the series of town halls he and several of the other CMs held to try to gather feedback from constituents, both on their experience with policing and on the kind of changes they were hoping to see. I made a few tweets during one here: https://twitter.com/sahrasulaiman/status/1296615529923239936

The town halls were interesting for how much more interactive they became over time - Wesson, Harris-Dawson, and Martínez all engaged the speakers to get a fuller accounting of that person's experience.

If people had complaints, Wesson would straight-up ask people what their preferred solution was or for clarification if he didn't understand something.

COVID obviously sucks and so does Zoom, but it did make the CMs more accessible in some ways. And this was definitely one.

The 4 major takeaways the CMs got from those townhalls were:
-Invest in communities & make residents partners in comm. well-being
-Better ways to address mental health crises
-More creative ways to address homelessness
-Better engagement w/ individuals w/ substance abuse issues

So Wesson was pleased that the alternative mental health/crisis response models they were looking to for help in creating a model for L.A. would be addressing some of these key community concerns.

It's a step forward that comes at a difficult moment in time, particularly for South L.A. There has been a significant bump in shootings in parts of the community this summer and great concern over the number of folks finding themselves in harm's way.

LAPD held a press conference with CMs Harris-Dawson and Buscaino, and a handful of faith leaders and interventionists, this morning to address those concerns and their response. https://twitter.com/LAPDHQ/status/1312076215000285185

It's the kind of data point that gets used to make the case that this is what happens when you get rid of the police. When what you're really seeing is present-traumatic-stress playing out in the streets.

By which I mean you need to have infrastructure in place that supports a more robust interventionist response but that also has concrete, sustained umbrella services for youth who are really in pain and feel they only way they can respond to those losses is by returning fire.

Too often we set up task forces and send in more police to round up known gang members. Which might quell some of the violence for a while, but doesn't actually fix anything. https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-south-la-gang-bust-20161212-story.html

That's not what that press conf. was about, btw. It was more of a call to the community for peace and a nod to the Community Safety Partnership and why it matters: the gang interventionists and relationships officers have there have helped to keep the peace in the developments.

Which many reading this thread will be skeptical about.

I can't say if it's true in this case. I can say my past experience tracking CSP would suggest that it is at least true to a degree - officers and interventionists are quicker to know when a war is brewing and to more effectively engage folks and bring peace more quickly.