LASD Introduces RIPA Dashboard, Empowering Community Access to Law Enforcement Data
LOS ANGELES — Recently, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department introduced a dashboard about the Racial and Identity Profiling Act or RIPA.
The RIPA Dashboard is an interactive database providing the community access to data obtained by the public contacts made by deputies. This includes traffic stops and calls for service. The Dashboard gives the public the ability to filter the information by race, date, station area and the type of stop.
The RIPA law requires all of California’s law enforcement agencies to collect this information on all “stops” – defined as any detention or search (including consensual searches) – and report this information to the California Department of Justice or DOJ. The bill outlines extensive policies, procedures, and data collection criteria to ensure that law enforcement practices are impartial, just, and unbiased.
The RIPA law explicitly forbids law enforcement officers from engaging in discriminatory practices based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or any other protected characteristic.
Deputy personnel are responsible for recording this data following their interactions with individuals. These interactions are categorized as either a ‘Call for Service’ or ‘Deputy Initiated’ (most frequently, a traffic stop). The data to be collected under the RIPA statute, often referred to as AB-953, includes the following:
The data collected under the RIPA statute includes many details of the detainment or consensual encounter for example: Ordering a person to exit their vehicle, placing a person in handcuffs, placing a person in the back seat of the patrol vehicle, performing field sobriety tests and/or searching a person or their property.
Details: The RIPA data is readily available, with up-to-date data for everyone to view at: https://lasd.org/transparency/ripa/
Dominic H. Choi Appointed To Serve as Interim Chief of LAPD
LOS ANGELES – Assistant Chief Dominic H. Choi Feb. 7 was unanimously appointed today by the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners as the Interim Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department.
The son of Korean immigrants, Interim Chief Choi was raised locally and began his career with the Los Angeles Police Department in 1995 after earning his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California. He worked patrol assignments in a variety of divisions, rising through the ranks to Detective, Sergeant, and Lieutenant. In 2014, he was promoted to Captain serving in both Foothill Area and Pacific Area. In 2017, he was promoted to Commander of Operations Central Bureau and later the Department’s Homeless Coordinator. He remained in that position until he was promoted to Deputy Chief in 2019.
Interim Chief Choi will assume the responsibility of interim chief of police March 1. He will be the first Asian-American to lead the Los Angeles Police Department.
County Invests in Homelessness with Comprehensive Emergency Response: Housing, Outreach and Critical Programs
LOS ANGELES — The Board of Supervisors approved a $783 million spending plan for the Los Angeles County Homeless Initiative or CEO-HI in fiscal year 2024-25 that sustains and expands the county’s existing homeless services system and ramps up the homelessness emergency response while investing in critical programs.
The plan includes $662.3 million for homelessness prevention, outreach, interim housing, permanent housing, and supportive services, plus an additional $120.7 million to support Pathway Home and other critical projects necessary to scale up the county’s homelessness emergency response. This spending plan will be funded with $587.2 million in anticipated voter-approved tax revenue; $140 million in additional county funds, and $55.8 million in State Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention or HHAP grant dollars.
Pathway Home leverages emergency powers and partnerships with local jurisdictions to bring people out of encampments and into immediately available interim housing accompanied by a comprehensive suite of supportive services and, ultimately, into safe, permanent homes. The spending plan also earmarks funding for critical projects, such as the Skid Row Action Plan, and specialized outreach to address recreational vehicle or RV encampments and those in high fire severity zones in unincorporated communities. This amount also includes opiate treatment, harm reduction, and other efforts to reduce the mortality rate among people experiencing homelessness.
Details: http://tinyurl.com/Homeless-Emergency-Response
County Embraces Sidewalk Vending Program in Unincorporated Areas for the First Time
LOS ANGELES — Today, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Feb. 6 adopted the county’s first official sidewalk vending ordinance for the unincorporated areas of LA County. The ordinance provides a pathway for entrepreneurs and small businesses into a newly legalized open-air economy It offers economic opportunity for vendors as well as conditions for better public health, safety, and well-being for all vendors, brick and mortar businesses, and community members.
The new law supports individuals in legally operating a sidewalk vending business on sidewalks and pedestrian pathways in the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. The board’s action codifies the Safe Sidewalk Vending Act (Senate Bill 946), passed in 2019 to decriminalize sidewalk vending in the State of California and to allow local authorities to develop guidelines and infrastructure to formalize the sidewalk vending industry. The county law specifically creates a sidewalk vending program run by the LA County Department of Economic Opportunity or DEO, a sidewalk vending registration certificate and annual fee for all mobile and stationary vendors, clear operating rules and regulations related to distancing, hours, and waste disposal, and fines and other penalties for non-compliance. The law will go into effect in August 2024.
For vendors and community members interested in vending, the DEO office of small business is available in person Monday through Friday, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm at the East LA Entrepreneur Center located at 4716 E Cesar E Chavez Ave. Building B, Los Angeles, or at 844-432-4900;osb@opportunity.lacounty.gov.