Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the creation of a Community Safety Partnership Bureau in the Los Angeles Police Department Monday.
"As many cities around the country struggle to figure out how to connect public safety and communities together, we draw from a reservoir here in Los Angeles of programs and policies that have been leading in the nation," Garcetti said. "We have a lot more to do."
He added the program would create a sense of partnership between the officers and community members. He said the goal is to make everyone feel safe in ALL communities.
"It's named after the nationally recognized initiative that puts officers on five-year assignments in one place to develop relationships with the people they serve," Garcetti said.
This new bureau is a program and a philosophy, according to Garcetti adding "it's an approach on how we police."
"We want every Angeleno to feel secure not only in the parks and the streets of their neighborhoods but in the presence of those in uniform. We want all officers to feel connected to the people they protect and we all want a safer Los Angeles," he said.
Garcetti said CSP has expanded to six new sites in his time as Mayor including neighborhoods and public housing developments.
He said it's community-driven policing adding it will be part of the foundation of the LAPD.
Earlier this month, the LA City Council cut the LAPD spending to officer levels that haven't been seen since 2008. That also meant a cut of $150 million with most of it coming from money marked for overtime pay. Last month, the Budget and Finance committee agreed to cut the LAPD budget.
"Councilman Curren Price, who pushed for the cuts, said two-thirds of the savings would ultimately be funneled into services for Black, Latino and disenfranchised communities, such as hiring programs and summer youth jobs," according to an LA Times story from July.
In June, LA City Council members, including the President, introduced the motion "to replace LAPD officers with unarmed, non-law enforcement agencies who will be responsible for responding to non-violent calls for service." Later on last month, the LA City Council approved the "first step" to replace LAPD officers, who handle non-violent calls, with unarmed emergency responders.
COVID-19 IN LA
Garcetti also said "numbers are holding" right now when it comes to COVID-19 in LA.
He said the hospitalizations are "still high but we have the capacity to withstand them."
"The thing is COVID-19 is still in control," Garcetti said.
Meanwhile, Gov. Newsom has addressed how California having the most COVID-19 cases in the nation. California has more than 400,000 cases but the death rate in New York is more than California. Gov. Newsom addressed the increase in cases saying "it is a sober reminder of why we are taking things as seriously as we are."
"It's not surprising now in some respects as we begin to reopen key sectors of our economy and people continue to mix and people continue to come in close contact with others who may have contracted this disease that our numbers would start to go up in total now the highest in the nation," Newsom said.
He said it's a reminder of why the state mask mandate went into place in June and closures of indoor dining at restaurants and other business sectors.
WHAT'S CLOSED AGAIN IN CALIFORNIA?
INDOOR OPERATIONS at RESTAURANTS STATEWIDE/GYMS, HOUSES OF WORSHIP FOR CA COUNTIES ON STATE MONITORING LIST
In the past few weeks, Newsom released also released new guidelines for barbershops and hair salons to operate outdoors in a safe environment Monday. Previously, Newsom has ordered the closure of fitness centers, houses of worship, hair and nail salons, barbershops in those counties on the state monitoring list last week, which includes LA County and other counties across the state.
He reminded what was closed statewide - indoor operations at dine-in restaurants, wineries, movie theaters, zoos, bars including outdoors - and what was closed in certain counties on the state monitoring list including gyms, shopping malls and places of worship.
LA County Public Health officials have announced the closure of those sectors to mimic Newsom's order: gyms and fitness centers, places of worship, indoor protests, nail salons, massage parlors, tattoo parlors, hair salons, barbershops and malls.
Newsom had ordered the closure of indoor operations at restaurants, wineries, zoos, movie theaters for at least three weeks for certain counties, including LA County, amid rising cases of COVID-19 in the state. Newsom has already ordered the closure of bars in LA County and other counties. Meanwhile, LA County, Orange County and Riverside counties decided to close their bars. The city of LA also ordered the closures of their gyms, hair and nail salons, barbershops and houses of worship.
SCHOOLS UPDATE
Newsom ordered the closure of schools for in-person classes for those Calfornia counties that are on the state monitoring list which is now more than 30 counties. Newsom said schools can physically reopen when its county has been off the monitoring list for 14 consecutive days. Schools that don't meet this requirement must begin the year with distance learning, according to Newsom.
Newsom said the schools in those counties on the watch list can't reopen in-person school until they are off the state monitoring list for two weeks straight unless the district superintendent requests a waiver from the county health officer, which may be granted. They will shift to distance learning in more than 30 counties. That includes Los Angeles County, Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange County and Ventura County and counties up north like Alameda County, Marin County, Monterey and Napa.