An audit by the Los Angeles City Controllerโs Office found that the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD)โs Mental Evaluation Unit (MEU) relies on armed-first control, limits counselor involvement, and measures success by how quickly officers leave a scene rather than by patient safety.
The report revealed that the MEUโwhich operates as part of LAPDโs mental health crisis responseโfunctions under a structure where โarmed officers dominate the scene and counselors are unable to intervene.โ It concluded that such a framework โmakes de-escalation difficult and eliminates opportunities for nonviolent resolution at critical moments.โ
These flaws were evident in the fatal shooting of Yang Yong, a 40-year-old Korean American, last year. Yangโs family had requested assistance from the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (DMH), but a DMH clinician, Yoon Sutae, reported the case to police without offering alternatives. Within two and a half minutes of arriving, Officer Andres Lopez from the Olympic Division fatally shot Yang.
LAPD later said that its SMART (Systemwide Mental Assessment Response Team) was present. However, Yangโs father, Dr. Yang Min, disputed that claim, saying, โThere were no counselors at the scene. Even if there were, their inaction made no difference.โ
The audit noted that despite operating since 1993, the SMART system has seen no meaningful reform. Each team pairs one LAPD officer with one DMH counselor, but in practice it functions as an โofficer-led, counselor-assistedโ structure. Counselors cannot engage directly until officers declare the scene โsafe,โ effectively limiting their role to post-incident support.
The report also criticized LAPDโs reliance on armed responses as standard practice, noting that โthe most critical window is the first one to three minutes,โ during which โcounselors often arrive after attempts at control or gunfire have already occurred.โ
Concerns were also raised about the Mental Health Intervention Training (MHIT) program, which provides only 36 hours of largely theoretical instruction. The audit found that officers receive no specialized field verification or follow-up evaluations, contrasting with cities such as New York, Seattle, and Denver, which require at least 40 hours of Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) and mandatory refresher courses.
Furthermore, the audit found no measurable decline in fatal use-of-force incidents between trained (0.15%) and untrained (0.20%) officers.
Finally, the report criticized LAPD for measuring success by โhow quickly officers can be freed from the scene,โ concluding that the departmentโs performance metrics โprioritize police efficiency over patient safety.โ
BY HANKIL KANG [kang.hankil@koreadaily.com]
