The City of West Hollywood invites community members to a free virtual community listening session regarding the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in the City of West Hollywood. Local leaders would like to hear feedback about experiences with Sheriff’s Deputies how community members feel about public safety — specifically in the areas of law enforcement response to mental health situations and homelessness in West Hollywood.
The virtual community listening session will take place using the WebEx platform on Monday, June 14, 2021 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Registration is required via WebEx at https://bit.ly/3owEPqn. The session is hosted by the City of West Hollywood and its Public Safety Commission, and by the Los Angeles County Civilian Oversight Commission, which facilitates public transparency and accountability with respect to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Community members may submit comments or questions in advance at http://bit.ly/2M0F3an. Observations, thoughts, and suggestions about the following topics are encouraged: public safety interactions with people who have mental health conditions; law enforcement response to homelessness; what law enforcement is doing well in West Hollywood; and other public safety issues affecting West Hollywood.
Virtual community listening session speakers will include:
Lael Rubin, Civilian Oversight Commission Chair and Former Deputy District Attorney;
Amanda Laflen, Chair, City of West Hollywood Public Safety Commission;
Tory Berger, Vice Chair, City of West Hollywood Public Safety Commission;
John Gannon, Captain, L.A. County Sheriff’s Department;
Sanjay Shah, LCSW, Mental Health Clinical Program Manager II, L.A. County Department of Mental Health;
Ryan Vienna, Lieutenant, L.A. County Sheriff’s Department;
Eden Anai Luna, Transgender Economic Empowerment Project; and
Clifford Roberts, Step Up on Second.
Additional panelists will include:
Casimiro U. Tolentino, Civilian Oversight Commission Vice-Chair and Former Administrative Law Judge for the State of California;
Annadennise Briz, Sergeant, L.A. County Sheriff’s Department;
Sergio A. Venegas, Deputy, L.A. County Sheriff’s Department;
David Giugni, Social Services Manager, City of West Hollywood; and
Brian K. Williams, Esq., Executive Director, L.A. County Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission.
After listening to community feedback and conducting research, L.A. County Civilian Oversight Commission staff will work with ad hoc committees to prepare recommendations to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and the public. As the Commission works to boost transparency and accountability, community input drives the ongoing analysis of the Sheriff’s Department’s policies, practices, and procedures. For more information about the L.A. County Civilian Oversight Commission, please visit https://coc.lacounty.gov. For more information about the community listening session, please email cocnotify@coc.lacounty.gov or call (213) 253-5678.
The City of West Hollywood’s Public Safety Department provides oversight of law enforcement and coordinates community programs to reduce crime and increase public safety and the quality of life for citizens, businesses, and visitors to West Hollywood. The City contracts with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for police protection, the Los Angeles County Fire Department for fire protection services, and Block by Block and PACWEST for additional safety services. To learn more about the agencies, programs, and initiatives that make the City of West Hollywood a safe place, download “Public Safety in the City of West Hollywood” at www.weho.org/home/showdocument?id=42465.
The City of West Hollywood’s Public Safety Commission meets monthly and provides the community an opportunity to provide input on public safety related services. For more information, please visit www.weho.org/city-government/boards-commissions/commissions/public-safety-commission.
For more information about Public Safety in the City of West Hollywood, please visit www.weho.org/publicsafety or contact City of West Hollywood Public Safety Director Kristin Cook at (323) 848-6414 or kcook@weho.org. For people who are Deaf or hard of hearing, please call TTY (323) 848-6496.
The City of West Hollywood has declared a local emergency in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. When in public, all community members should maintain your space with social (physical) distancing of at least six feet. Public Health officials recommend that everyone, even those who are vaccinated, continue to follow health recommendations. All people, regardless of vaccination status, should cover your face when in crowded outdoor areas and must use face coverings in indoor public settings.
West Hollywood City Hall is currently closed to the public and has suspended all in-person transactions. Most public City buildings and facilities remain closed. City Hall remains accessible for business and essential services with transactions to be conducted by phone (323) 848-6400 and via the City’s website at www.weho.org.
City of West Hollywood coronavirus updates are available at www.weho.org/coronavirus and the City encourages community members to follow @wehocity on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and turn on notifications. For up-to-date news and events, follow the City of West Hollywood on social media, sign up for news updates at www.weho.org/email, and visit the City’s calendar of meetings and events at www.weho.org/calendar.
For reporters and members of the media seeking additional information about the City of West Hollywood, please contact the City of West Hollywood’s Public Information Officer, Sheri A. Lunn, at (323) 848-6391 or slunn@weho.org.
DRUG ADDICTION, DRUG DEALING, & OPEN USE needs to be addressed. Look how PASSING OUT NEEDLES & INJECTION CENTERS has helped turned San Francisco into a garbage pit of the drug addicted (LA following suit). People pee and poop openly in the streets. And these vagrants harass all walks of life and make daily living a living hell for those who reside here. The answer is not more super liberal policies. It takes enforcement of laws, especially when it comes to drugs. It takes enforcement of laws, especially when it comes to indecent exposure of people defecating in the streets.… Read more »
Blame the city for the lack of Resources available to homeless. The real problem is with the Social service department and it’s Homeless out reach agencies. ASCENCIA, STEP UP ON SECOND, LA LGBT CENTER, TARZANA TREATMENT CENTERS. What good does it do to have contracted agencies when they can’t provide Temporary shelters, hotel food, showers or other resources. The homeless on the streets have been given the runaround by these agencies. Enough is enough I have seen firsthand the lack of professionalism by security ambassadors harassing the homeless Throughout the city. It’s time for Civil rights attorney Carol Sobel Step… Read more »
Baloney
The homeless won’t use these resources, so there is no point in providing more of them. They are on the street because that’s what they want.
Loitering, public urination, defecation and masturbation, disturbing the peace, exhibitionism, being uninvited on private property, hoarding trash, and threatening passersby are all against the law and I’ve experienced every one of those by homeless in my neighborhood within the last few weeks.
I paid hundreds of thousands of dollars on my condo, yet all this is right outside my door … every day.
Your line of thinking is the problem with this city. I don’t see many blaming the police. They blame the ultra liberal politicians. The homeless don’t use the resources they are provided and the state refuses to force them off the streets into programs that will help. Asking someone with mental illness or on drugs what they want is ineffective because the truth is they don’t know what they want due to their altered state of mind.
The city needs to be more aggressive about transients. Allowing mentally ill people to live in their own filth is not compassion.
Yup.
the mentally is have the same rights as you and me. considering the state of California does not see being transient as a crime, as they are “unhoused”, what can a city/local law enforcement do without violating these peoples’ rights? how do you not violate someone’s civil rights if they’re “unhoused” ? you can’t just pick them up and move them elsewhere against their will. that’s called kidnapping. law enforcement doesn’t want to keep arresting them because your DA doesn’t file any of the charges. sorry to say this, LA, but you reap what you sow. liberal legislation is killing… Read more »
I agree with JJ1. Some seem to fail to realize police enforce laws. They don’t make laws. For all the complaining about the police not doing anything, it is really the ultra liberal politicians (this is coming from a moderate liberal) that continue to be put in office. Those that think we should build a city of tiny homes in our beach parking lots and that will solve the problem…What we need to do is change outdated mental health laws that we’re made in the times of cruel mental health experiments. Families are not legally allowed to make their loved… Read more »
Bravo!
A realistic comment that actually “deals” with the issue. The Far Left (which seems to have completely taken over the old Democratic Party) believes the answer is a hug, a rainbow flag, and money to buy drugs with. We have a lack of adult leadership in positions of power in West Hollywood.
When did it become the “taxpayers = working stiff” responsibility to pick-up the care and pampering for the failed decisions of others (that INCLUDE decisions by politicians to invite millions of non tax paying, dependent illegal aliens into so called sanctuary cities and states). There is a direct correlation to the displacement of Working Class Americans (that NO ONE seems to speak up for) by illegal aliens. From depressed wages, competition for low cost housing, deteriorating schools and social services. It was simply a matter of time for these policies to catch up and demand accounting. There has NEVER been… Read more »
Yup.
Interesting point – can you please cite studies/verified stats/legitimate sources supporting your statement in order for us to educate ourselves?
One has only to correlate (minimally skilled internet research) the employment stats of pre-1990 (service industry for example), alone with available housing, wage comparison, and statistics of an industry like construction in Souther California (which is now almost made up of 80% of people not legal to work in this country), from pre-massive illegal immigration explosion to now. It was exactly around 1995 that Reed, Pelosi and other democratic leaders banded together to suddenly become tolerant to pro illegal immigration. It was also shortly after (census is done every 10 years) that Democratic political power began to grow via NEW… Read more »
The upward trajectory of inflationary cost pertaining to housing, feeding, infrastructure, pollution, services, utilities, education, taxes, jobs is extraordinary when on considers that Los Angeles now supports the largest illegal alien population in the nation…by far. The low ball estimate is 1.7 million ‘2018’ (non tax paying, polluting, housing use, social services…and so forth.) MIT/Yale study of illegal immigration of 2018 place the real number (based on true statistical analysis is between 16.7 and 22.1 at a low estimate. And could be as high as 33 million. That is a number that is almost the entire population of the most… Read more »
Very well said!
Sorry to say this,but the commenter before me is very right on his observations of the homeless problems in the city.Most of the homeless I have ever been in contact are either on drugs or plain zombied out.Sheriff depuites will take action on these people if they have in possession a weapon,otherwise they just get moved elsewhere.
Don’t be sorry. More people need to speak the truth.
The courts have tied their hands. We need to push for a change in the laws so that people will drug addiction, alcohol addition or mental illness can be placed into facilities to get the help they so desperately need. Allow them to lay in their own filth, eating out of garbage cans and pitching a tent on a sidewalk is not compassion. It’s doing them no good and it’s doing the society at large no good. They need treatment to be on a path to becoming productive citizens. Currently, there is not much the Sheriffs can do unless they… Read more »
When Pat Brown (Jerry’s dad) was in his second term as California governor the assembly decided that it was a violation of civil rights to force the seriously mentally ill to live in housing provided for them by the state solely so there would be control over their intake of medication. While on their medication these people appeared perfectly normal. So Gov. Brown supported the closing of these group homes and releasing the patients onto the streets IF THEY PROMISED TO TAKE THEIR MEDICATION! What could go wrong? The timing of this legislation was at the end of Gov. Brown’s… Read more »