The LAPD had unexpected issues as massive protests over George Floyd’s police murder roared in Los Angeles in late May 2020.
After a week of demonstration, officers fired a huge number of “low lethal” crowd-controlled projectiles made of rubber, with low department stockpiling.
According to an email from LAPD reviewed by The Times, two reserve officers arranged to fly private planes to Casper, Wyoming, winning 2,000 additional rounds from an arms wholesaler called Safariland.
The following weeks brought more anxiety on the streets, with police criticising for indiscriminately firing rubber rounds at the crowd and injuring many people with shots on their faces and torso.
Multiple reports and activists attacked the department’s response to the protest as a failed operation that failed to learn from poor planning, poor training and past mistakes.
According to an analysis of Times’ LAPD data released by the LA Attorney’s Office, the police lawsuit in connection with the George Floyd protest cost $11.9 million in settlements and juj awards. Many other pending cases represent the liability exposure of potential tens of millions of liability.
But police supporters who have been ruled out for five years after Floyd’s murder say public opinion has looked back in favor of primarily offensive law enforcement.
Last month, President Trump issued an executive order pledging to “unleash the impactful local police” in his administration’s campaign against “criminal foreigners.”
The U.S. Department of Justice moved last week to cancel settlements to overhaul police stations in Louisville, Kentucky and Minneapolis. Federal surveillance was part of a nation that considered racism and police brutality following the murder of Breana Taylor and Floyd’s law enforcement, which was locked onto the pavement by police officers for nearly ten minutes before their deaths.
The push to overhaul the LAPD, which began in 2020, did not bring about a sweep change, but the police department somehow resembles the slim version that some activists are looking for.
Though billions of dollars are on the rise, the number of low-level arrests and traffic stops has plummeted, and staffing shortages have forced the department to focus more on dealing with and solving violent crimes.
Today, the department has nearly 1,300 officers than when Floyd passed away, with fewer police officers than any point since 1995, reflecting a nationwide decline in police staffing.
On Thursday, LA City Council approved a $14 billion spending plan for 2025-26. The council provided enough money to allow LAPD to hire 240 new executives next year, from the 480 people proposed by Mayor Karen Bass last month.
When asked last week in a news radio appearance, LAPD chief Jim McDonnell, asked if Floyd’s death had changed police, said he had primarily due to poor employment.
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, Center and Captain James Fan will be conducting a unified examination on May 2nd during graduation.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
The department has lost the police score “not feeling supported” and continues to prove that recruitment is challenging.
“So it had a negative impact on the entire profession,” he told public radio station KCRW. “We must restore morale within our organization. We must restore pride within our occupation.”
Following years of calls to embrace alternatives to traditional police, LAPD officials and city leaders continue to explore ways to hand over phones that include substance abuse, homelessness and mental illness. Officers are also no longer responding to small amounts of traffic accidents.
Efforts to limit police traffic involvement have gained some traction, and the controversial policy enacted by former Chief Moore limits critics’ claims to have led to the disproportionate halt of drivers or pedestrians, which has led to the disproportionate harassment of black and brown Angeleno. The department has also taken steps to limit dangerous pursuits by asking supervisors to monitor in real time, and if the pursuits have proven too dangerous, then discontinue them.
Police data show violent crime continues to fall from the pandemic highs, except for worsening attacks and robberies in certain parts of the city. Property crimes, including most robberies, are also beginning to lean downwards.
Some reform efforts have stagnated, including proposals to overhaul the departmental disciplinary system for executives. Another plan that replaced LAPD officers with unarmed transport workers in traffic amid discussions over jurisdiction and funding will halt.
Art Acevedo, who began his career with the California Highway Patrol, denounced the movement for “refunding” and “repeatting” his actions and skewed the debate on how to move forward before serving as police chief in several major cities such as Houston and Miami.
Acevedo, who applied for the LAPD Chief job that he ultimately went to McDonnell, said the police union and allies “effectively equated with police reforms to defend themselves in the same way as defending police rebates.”
“The move has produced a translated backlash in the decline in appetite for reform,” he said.
Acevedo also worries about officers who are encouraged to bend or break current climate rules.
Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles, shared similar concerns.
“I think they’ve definitely been released,” she said of the police. “It’s not like they’ve been chains before.”
Part of the problem is public fatigue over the seemingly constant barrage of troublesome incidents, Abdullah said.
“People don’t have the bandwidth to respond to with the rage they did when they saw the assault in Pan Pacific Park,” Abdullah said, referring to LAPD’s response to the 2020 protest.
John Burton, the lawyer who filed suits on behalf of several people injured in the less-fatal round during the 2020 LA protests, said most changes to the LAPD were around the edge, but the department has not addressed a culture of invasion.
He said the lack of progress is evident in the LAPD Interior Examination, which reviewed that in the face of overwhelming video evidence, it rarely finds that officers have no problem with using force. A small number of police officers mentioned in his case have been promoted, he said, even after accusing him of lying to police reports.
He said LAPD supervisors looked at the other way because they were “very protective” officers.
Burton also said rubber projectiles are still in use, but they are still in use despite little evidence that the weapon has helped to contain the chaos on the streets. Police also faced criticism last year over the handling of Palestinian protests at USC and UCLA campuses.
“The idea that by filming the first one of these things, someone would stop throwing rocks at the police officer is fantasy,” he said. “They can be very seriously injured.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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