LA City Council approves plan to revamp LAPD with unarmed crisis response team

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to have a chief administrator develop an unarmed team to respond to nonviolent 911 calls.

The motion here in Los Angeles was introduced by several council members in June at the height of our civil unrest.

This follows the nationwide movement by civil rights activists to defund the police.

RELATED: Garcetti says LAPD will form new bureau focused on community safety

The council approved the motion 14-0, saying that a different response is needed for people who may be suffering from mental health or substance abuse issues.

"It has become more apparent that unnecessarily dispatching armed police officers to incidents that do not require their presence oftentimes escalates situations to a dangerous and unnecessary level," said Councilman Mitch O'Farrell.

The city is looking to partner with a nonprofit to develop the team of specially trained, unarmed responders for nonviolent calls. Los Angeles will become the first big city to develop such a pilot program.