Los Angeles is expanding its Unarmed Model of Crisis Response (UMCR), a pilot program designed to shift emergency response away from law enforcement in nonviolent situations involving mental health, substance use, and welfare checks. The initiative is part of a growing national movement to reimagine public safety by dispatching trained civilians rather than police officers to calls where care, not enforcement, is needed.
Originally launched in just three LAPD divisions in 2023 (Devonshire, Wilshire, and Southeast), the UMCR program now operates in six (including West LA) and is scheduled to expand to nine by the end of the fiscal year. Its scope is limited but growing, covering about 44 percent of the city. Advocates are hoping this leads to full citywide coverage by 2028.
The program deploys mobile teams of mental health professionals, peer support workers, and clinicians who respond to 911 and 211 calls that fall into six pre-approved categories: nonviolent mental health crises, welfare checks, public intoxication, indecent exposure not involving violence or threats, nonviolent disputes, and general assistance calls. The model is operated by contracted nonprofit providers including Exodus Recovery, Penny Lane Centers, and the Alcott Center, and is entirely separate from LAPD. Advocates say this distinction is essential to building trust with marginalized communities.
According to the city’s newly released UMCR Year in Review report, over 6,900 calls were successfully diverted from police to unarmed responders in the program’s first year. In 96 percent of those cases, the situation was resolved without any law enforcement involvement. This low rate of escalation mirrors data from other cities and has helped dispel early skepticism about safety. Services were accepted in 75 percent of incidents. In 99 percent of cases, no ambulance was needed. Nearly 20 percent of people were directly transported to another location (such as a shelter or mental health clinic) demonstrating the program’s ability to not only de-escalate crises but also connect people to care. The pilot also had fast response times, averaging around 30-minutes per call as compared with LA County’s separate psychiatric mobile crisis teams, which take from 2-6 hours.
For comparison, LAPD officers receive over 180,000 calls a year related to mental health issues, nearly 30 percent of which involve people experiencing homelessness. The overwhelming majority of these incidents do not involve any threat of violence. By handling these calls, L.A.’s unarmed teams saved the police an estimated nearly 7,000 hours of patrol time in one year. With LAPD struggling to fill its ranks, city officials see these alternative responders as a way to free up officers for serious crimes and improve overall response times.
Public support for UMCR is high. Community surveys show Angelenos “strongly endorse unarmed models of crisis response,” which helped drive City Council backing for the pilot. “Because it directly removes certain call types from the police, what makes UMCR powerful is that it’s about system change, not just service delivery,” said Godfrey Plata, campaigns director at LA Forward, a nonprofit that has advocated for the program’s expansion. “It’s building an emergency response that doesn’t default to punishment.”
The structure of UMCR differs from older programs like the city’s CIRCLE initiative, which is housed in the Mayor’s Office and focuses narrowly on homelessness-related calls. Unlike CIRCLE, UMCR teams are dispatched through a non-police number and are independent from any city department. They are equipped with both clinical and peer support expertise and receive training in trauma-informed response and de-escalation.
Still, the program faces significant challenges. One of the biggest barriers is dispatch coordination. Currently, 911 operators are required to manually identify eligible calls, remember which neighborhoods are covered by UMCR, and then transfer callers to the appropriate nonprofit responder agency, a process that increases the likelihood of delays and errors. Advocates have repeatedly called on the city to fund a centralized dispatch system that would streamline this process. The estimated cost to build such a hub is only $2.5 million, and yet a previous attempt to fund it fell one vote short in the City Council.
In the meantime, UMCR responses remain inconsistent across neighborhoods. Each nonprofit provider runs its own intake system, and teams are not available 24/7 in any part of the city. With only three service providers responsible for the entire program, scaling the initiative presents significant logistical and workforce hurdles.
To reach the city’s 2028 coverage goal, LA Forward and its partners are exploring alternative certification pathways, accreditation programs for crisis response teams, and state-level policy tools to build a sustainable pipeline of trained responders. They’re also advocating for expansion of eligible call types, especially to include youth-related crises. Currently, the program excludes calls involving minors, even when the incident clearly involves a behavioral or mental health need.
The pilot was funded at about $14 million for its first year, a tiny sliver (under 0.5%) of L.A.’s budget. By contrast, LAPD receives ~46% of the city’s unrestricted general funds. The city’s 2025-2026 budget includes funding to expand UMCR’s reach, and for the first time, the program has its own line item, signaling growing institutional commitment. But organizers warn that without dedicated infrastructure and political protection, UMCR could stagnate or be absorbed into law enforcement structures in future administrations.
Los Angeles is not the first city to experiment with alternatives to police-led crisis response. The CAHOOTS program in Eugene, Oregon, and Denver’s STAR program are often cited as national benchmarks. CAHOOTS, which launched in 1989, now responds to up to 20 percent of all 911 calls in Eugene. STAR, launched in 2020, handled over 7,000 calls in its first two years and recently announced plans to expand citywide. Both programs report resolution rates of over 90 percent without police intervention.
What distinguishes UMCR from many peer programs is its ambition to permanently shift entire categories of 911 calls away from law enforcement. Where other cities have adopted co-responder models or kept civilian teams under the umbrella of police departments or mayoral control, UMCR is designed to be fully independent from LAPD.
The stakes are heightened in light of recent federal developments. Under a second Trump administration, immigration enforcement has intensified, and federal coordination with local police departments is expanding. Community organizations across Los Angeles have expressed concern that the return of roving ICE patrols and Operation Lone Star-style enforcement could put vulnerable residents at greater risk. Programs like UMCR offer an alternative pathway that responds to crisis with care rather than criminalization.
During the 2028 Olympics, the city is expected to dramatically increase its policing footprint, including coordination with federal agencies. Advocates are pushing for full UMCR coverage by then to ensure that communities have access to care-based responders during a period of heightened surveillance and risk. “This is about having another system to send,” said Plata. “Especially when the federal government is sending theirs.”