Public safety
Public safety is the foundation of a functioning city. Angelenos should feel safe in their homes, walking at night, and riding transit. And when you call for help, it should be answered right away and the right response should come quickly.
In 2020, I joined Angelenos and Americans in calling for a collective reimagining of public safety. The George Floyd protests cracked open a conversation that had been closed for too long — about what keeps us safe, how that safety is delivered, and how we hold the system accountable.
In 2026, trust in our public safety system remains uneven. Too many calls for service are still unnecessarily handled by armed officers. Response times for LAPD are inconsistent across neighborhoods. And not enough is being done to prevent crime before it happens.
We will not achieve the public safety Angelenos need through the binary choice of defunding the police or defending business as usual. We must design a system that safeguards our accountability and stops defaulting to armed officers for every call for help. At the same time, the police department needs to be organized to deliver the response times and presence Angelenos deserve when armed officers are necessary.
My platform commits to three things.
First, scale unarmed response citywide and integrate it into 911. I will bring unarmed response to every neighborhood in LA and build it directly into 911 dispatch, so the right responder arrives the first time. This is how we reduce the use-of-force incidents that cause harm and drive liability costs, and deliver the holistic public safety response Angelenos have been asking for.
Second, restore accountability and trust. I will work with LAPD on deployment so that calls for help are answered in a timely fashion, hold all of our public safety responses to public performance standards through a weekly Mayor-led process, strengthen civilian oversight of LAPD by backing the Police Commission and its Office of the Inspector General, and take on the massive liability costs that stem from the department.
Third, invest in prevention. I will fund community violence intervention at scale, maintain the basics every neighborhood depends on for safety, and align enforcement with real safety risks.
This is the public safety system Angelenos deserve, and the one I'm running to deliver.
Expand unarmed response and modernize 911 dispatch
The problem
Too many 911 calls involving behavioral health needs, substance use, and homelessness are routed to armed response. This can escalate situations, delay appropriate care, and divert officers away from serious crime.
A modern community safety system also requires the dispatch infrastructure to make sure all calls are answered quickly. In our current system, triage protocols are inconsistent, and high-risk calls like domestic violence aren't always flagged.
Our plan
Scale unarmed crisis response to every neighborhood in Los Angeles. We will deploy multidisciplinary teams of trained crisis responders, behavioral health specialists, medical professionals, and outreach workers. These teams will primarily respond to behavioral health crises, nonviolent homelessness-related calls, and other non-violent calls for service, which currently make up a significant portion of 911 calls.
Integrate unarmed response directly into the 911 system so that calls can be triaged to civilian teams when appropriate. These teams will coordinate with the 988 crisis line, with the ability to escalate to law enforcement when necessary.
Overhaul 911 call triage and routing with standardized, citywide protocols based on risk level, type of need, location, and call history. We must build the capacity to answer non-emergency calls in a timely way, so Angelenos seeking support and those seeking unarmed response aren't deprioritized and left waiting. High-risk and repeat incidents, like domestic violence, will be flagged in real time, with automatic connection to follow-up services. Callers seeking support for non-emergency and non-violent calls, including people calling after a burglary has already taken place or callers seeking mental health crisis response, now face long wait times, sometimes as much as an hour before their calls are answered.
Build accountability and restore community trust
The problem
Responsibility for community safety in Los Angeles is spread across many departments, each operating with separate mandates, data systems, and timelines. No one is accountable for whether the system as a whole produces safety in people's daily lives. And residents have no clear way to see how their neighborhood is performing or to know whether the system is working at all.
Our plan
Expand the Mayor's Office of Community Safety (MOCS) as the central coordinating entity for safety across the city. We will use MOCS to integrate policing, unarmed emergency response, sanitation, fire, transportation, and community-based services into a single framework.
Implement “SafetyStat,” a weekly, Mayor-led review with LAPD, LAFD, LADOT, Sanitation, Emergency Management, and other departments as needed. Each session will focus on specific geographies and specific safety challenges. Departments will present current performance data, identify system failures, and commit to time-bound corrective actions.
Publish a Community Safety Scoreboard with neighborhood-level data on response times, repeat calls, violent crime, retail theft, traffic injuries and deaths, calls diverted to non-police response, and resident-reported safety metrics. The Scoreboard will be the city's public report card on community safety, and the basis for budgeting and deployment decisions. Currently, LAPD has not been reporting neighborhood-level crime data for over a year; we must do much better.
Strengthen independent oversight of LAPD. We will ensure the Police Commission and its Office of the Inspector General have access to the resources and data they need to do their job. They also need a Mayor's office that backs their findings, acts on their recommendations, and uses the budget process to push for the reforms they identify.
Work with LAPD to reform deployment and staffing, including increases in civilian staffing, and other operational improvements that build on the 2025 RAND study.
Protect the City’s finances from rising liability costs. LAPD is the single largest source of liability payouts in the City budget, accounting for $152 million in fiscal year 2025, which is more than half of all citywide liability payouts. Every dollar going to misconduct settlements is a dollar not going to streetlights, sidewalks, parks, or basic services. We will push forward broader reforms to reduce liability costs, building on recent recommendations from the City Attorney and the CAO, including potential caps on how much each department can draw from the General Fund before having to use their own budget. Stronger oversight, expanding unarmed response, and modernizing dispatch will reduce the misconduct that drives these costs in the first place.
Reinforce sanctuary city protections. Residents must be able to trust that LAPD is not cooperating with ICE. We will conduct a transparent audit of department practices to identify and close any gaps between the Sanctuary City Ordinance and how the department actually operates. We will also codify and expand the ban on ICE operations on city property, ensure that no city data is ever used for federal immigration enforcement, and work with the City Attorney to challenge unconstitutional actions by federal agents.
Expand community partnership across the city through regular neighborhood safety forums and structured engagement with community-based organizations, with input integrated into SafetyStat priorities and operational decisions.
Invest in prevention
The problem
The community organizations that interrupt violence and stabilize neighborhoods operate on small, short-term grants instead of the sustained funding the work requires. And too often, the same corners, addresses, and individuals generate calls month after month without a coordinated response.
Prevention also depends on whether the City shows up consistently. Lighting, cleanliness, maintenance, and the visible presence of coordinated services all shape whether residents feel safe moving through their communities. When these conditions are neglected, trust erodes. A heightened law enforcement presence is not a substitute for the basics.
Our plan
Fund community violence intervention at scale, with multi-year contracts and expansion in the neighborhoods that need it most. Programs will be measured on whether they actually interrupt cycles of violence and reduce retaliation.
Disrupt patterns of human trafficking by coordinating enforcement and inspection across departments and using data to identify trafficking hotspots. Frontline City staff will be trained to recognize the signs of trafficking and connect survivors to support.
Address repeat contact with the system. When the same callers, addresses, and individuals keep generating calls, city agencies will share data, coordinate cases, and address challenges head-on. This will require close coordination with the County Department of Mental Health.
Maintain the basics that make neighborhoods feel safe. The City will deliver consistent service across every neighborhood, including working lights, clean sidewalks, and well-maintained infrastructure. Performance will be tracked through SafetyStat to make sure delivery doesn't fall behind.