LAPD officers have opened fire on 41 people so far in 2025, representing a sharp increase from the 29 shootings the department recorded last year. It comes at the same time city audits and new program evaluations show that LA continues to rely on armed police as its first response to mental health and social crises, even when safer alternatives are already proving successful.

This year’s shootings include many cases in which the initial call to 911 described someone experiencing a mental health emergency rather than someone committing a violent crime. In one recent incident, officers shot a man who had been attempting to harm himself with a piece of broken glass. He was alone and in crisis, not threatening others. The person who called for emergency services wanted help, not someone with a gun there to escalate the situation.

A recent report from the City Controller found that LAPD’s co responder program, which pairs officers with mental health clinicians, still treats these calls primarily as law enforcement events. Officers remain in charge of the scene, make the first contact, and often handcuff people before clinicians are allowed to evaluate them. In most cases the person in crisis ends up detained under a psychiatric hold rather than connected to voluntary care. The report concluded that the department’s approach to mental health response remains rooted in force, not treatment.

Meanwhile, the city’s new unarmed crisis response program has shown strong results in its first full year. Unarmed clinicians and peer support workers have already diverted thousands of calls away from police. In the overwhelming majority of those calls no officer had to respond, and most people were connected to services on the spot. That record suggests that many of the incidents that now end in police shootings could be handled differently if the right responders were sent first.

But despite the early success of unarmed response teams, the program is still limited to specific areas and hours. Most mental health calls across Los Angeles continue to go through LAPD. When officers arrive, they are trained and equipped to handle threats rather than trauma. That dynamic produces predictable results. People who need support in their most vulnerable moments instead face a police presence that can escalate confusion and fear into violence.

Community advocates and families affected by shootings have urged city leaders to treat the current numbers as a clear warning. Forty one shootings is not a sign that LAPD is succeeding at crisis response. It is evidence that the existing system continues to put people in danger when they reach out for help.