LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass today announced that the Crisis and Incident Response through Community-led Engagement (CIRCLE) program is expanding its current Venice and Del Rey service area to also cover Oakwood, Mar Vista, Palms, Playa Vista, Playa Del Rey, Westchester, Manchester Square and Dockweiler Beach. CIRCLE provides services to help respond to calls involving unhoused individuals, including loitering, well-being checks, noise disturbances, substance abuse issues, and indecent exposure. The expansion will launch 24/7 service on Sunday, August 25th.
“CIRCLE continues to be a proven program to help Angelenos, and the CIRCLE team has helped people in need and freed up police officers to respond to the calls where they are needed the most,” said Mayor Bass. “This expansion plan means people in West Los Angeles will have an array of responders to make the biggest difference based on their needs. I want to thank our many partners in this effort to keep Angelenos safe.”
The expansion is made possible by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Byrne Discretionary Grant Program, which was allocated with the support of Congressman Ted Lieu (CA-36) through the federal appropriations process for community project funding.
"I am proud to partner with the Mayor’s office and Congressman Ted Lieu's office to expand the CIRCLE Program across the Pacific Division," said Councilmember Traci Park. "This proven program will now cover more of the Westside, ensuring that Angelenos receive the important response services they need and providing crucial support to our communities."
“The expansion of the CIRCLE program to communities like Palms is a significant step in our ongoing commitment to compassionate and effective crisis response,” said Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky. “Providing an alternative response to nonviolent, non-criminal incidents ensures that our police officers can concentrate on their core responsibilities, and makes all of our communities safer.”
CIRCLE is a 24/7 proven unarmed response program that deploys a team of mental health professionals and individuals with lived experience to address non-violent LAPD calls related to unhoused individuals experiencing crisis. Through this public health approach, the City is able to improve community safety and outcomes for Angelenos in need of social services and support.
The program right now operates in Hollywood, Downtown Los Angeles, South Los Angeles, Venice, the Harbor Area and the San Fernando Valley. In the last fiscal year, more than 14,000 incidents were diverted to CIRCLE, and CIRCLE teams placed hundreds of individuals into interim housing, reconnected individuals back to their families, obtained permanent supportive housing placements, assisted more than 1,600 individuals in obtaining vital documents such as social security cards and IDs, referred more than 1,000 individuals to mental and behavioral health services, and reversed opioid-related overdoses.
The public can access CIRCLE through the non-emergency line at 1-877-275-5273 or 877-ASK- LAPD. Select the “non-emergency dispatch” option.
The Mayor’s CIRCLE program operates within the Mayor’s Office of Community Safety. After Mayor Bass was elected, she created the Mayor’s Office of Community Safety to prevent crime and violence through community-based strategies that impact the social and economic conditions that drive community harm. The Office supports non-punitive safety strategies, including civilian first responders, violence interruption, re-entry services, youth diversion programs, and capacity-building programs for non-profit organizations that address community safety. Through these measures, the Office works in partnership with the community to positively impact the lives of the people we serve to keep communities safe. Read more about the CIRCLE program here.