Report: LAPD shoot blacks, mentally ill disproportionately

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Report: LAPD shoot blacks, mentally ill disproportionately

Amanda Lee Myers, Associated Press

Updated 5:07 pm, Tuesday, March 1, 2016

LOS ANGELES (AP) — When Los Angeles police officers fire at suspects, their targets are disproportionately black or mentally ill, according to the most comprehensive data on the use of force ever compiled by the department and released to the public Tuesday.

Of the 223 people shot at by Los Angeles police between 2011 and 2015, 77 were black, according to the report. That means 35 percent of those shot at by police were black, while blacks make up just 9 percent of the city's population.

Meanwhile the number of mentally ill people shot by police increased from five in 2014 to 14 last year. The 14 mentally ill people represent 37 percent of all the people shot by Los Angeles police in 2015, according to the report, which the police department presented Tuesday to the city's police commission, a civilian oversight panel.

. . .

As for the sharp increase in the number of mentally ill people shot by police last year, Beck said there's no one explanation but that overall, officers had more interactions with the mentally ill as the number of homeless people in the city has increased.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Report-LAPD-shoot-blacks-mentally-ill-6863785.php

[proverbialwisdom]

1. Related.

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/1780/article/p2p-86052485/

L.A. County courts see huge increase in number of mentally ill defendants
Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey said of the increase in competency cases, "I think it's a sign that we urgently need to embrace the mental health diversion program."

BY ABBY SEWELL
February 28, 2016, 5:31 p.m.

The morning calendar in Department 95 was busy, as usual.

Housed in a nondescript brick building on an industrial stretch of San Fernando Road in Cypress Park, the courtroom handles mental health cases for Los Angeles County Superior Court.

On a recent Thursday, the roughly 70 defendants set to appear included a homeless man charged with violations related to camping in a Beverly Hills park; a woman accused of embezzling money from an elderly acquaintance; and a woman charged with felony battery on a police officer. She was accused of kicking an officer who had tried to remove her from the Pasadena library.

These defendants, like most on the docket, had been sent to Department 95 to determine whether they were too mentally ill to stand trial.

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Competency cases increased by nearly 50% from 2014 to last year. Between 2010 and 2015, the annual total ballooned from 944 to 3,528.

L.A. County Superior Court does not compile detailed data on what types of criminal cases wind up in mental health court. Attorneys, judges, doctors and law enforcement officials say they can only guess why the caseload is growing.

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http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-lapd-use-of-force-report-20160301-story.html