Posts

Luskin Summit on COVID, Public Transit and Homelessness

/0 Comments/in , /by

In the Luskin Summit session “Transit Impacts: Fewer Riders, More Homelessness,” experts in urban planning and public policy discussed how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the intersection of public transit and homelessness. Brian Taylor, director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UCLA Luskin, spoke about the social service role of public transit and how the pandemic has affected ridership among different groups. Public transit ridership dropped suddenly and dramatically at the beginning of the pandemic but has been increasing slowly since, with returning riders more likely to be low-income and people of color, Taylor said. Conan Cheung, a senior executive at LA Metro, explained that the agency has made frequent service and fare adjustments based on changes in ridership and revenue during the pandemic. In a study of U.S. and Canadian transit systems, Associate Dean and Professor of Urban Planning Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris found that over half of the agencies reported that they see at least 100 individuals who are unhoused per day. Many agencies also noted the lack of clear policies and training on how to respond to and interact with unhoused people, as well as a lack of support from local and state governments in addressing homelessness. Steve Martingano of Denver’s Regional Transportation District shared how his department redirected funds from the police division to hire mental health clinicians, form a homelessness task force and hire a full-time outreach coordinator to address the issue of homelessness in public transit. — Zoe Day

Watch the webinar
More on Luskin Summit 2021

Leap on Alternative Measures for Promoting Community Safety

/0 Comments/in , /by

Adjunct Professor of Social Welfare Jorja Leap joined KPCC’s “Take Two” to talk about police and social justice reform in Los Angeles. According to Leap, special units such as gang units are more adversarial than beneficial, making community members feel as though they are being watched. Instead, she pointed to the success of alternative measures like the Gang Reduction and Youth Development (GRYD) Department, in which community interventionists come together and work with residents, families and youth to stem the tide of gang violence. Residents of Los Angeles are anticipating a new relationship between law enforcement and communities of color with the establishment of the Community Safety Partnership Bureau under LAPD Chief Michel Moore, Leap said. “Relationship building is at the core of public safety,” she said, adding that it is important to reconceptualize the role of police as relationship builders partnering with community members — not as enforcers. The segment featuring Leap begins at minute 29.

Listen to the podcast

Urban Planning Faculty Spearhead Mass Incarceration Archive Project

/0 Comments/in , /by

Urban Planning Professors Kelly Lytle Hernández and Karen Umemoto as well as incoming Urban Planning Assistant Professor Marques Vestal are collaborating on a new initiative to create an archive on policing and mass incarceration in Los Angeles. The project, called “Archiving the Age of Mass Incarceration,” aims to collect, digitize and preserve a sustainable archive of data, testimonies, artifacts and police files for the next generation of research on racial and social justice. “The new platform will catapult our centers into the digital future in knowledge-sharing and knowledge production,” said Umemoto, director of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. The archive will build off the work of the UCLA-based Million Dollar Hoods research project, a community-driven initiative that began in 2016 to quantify the fiscal and human cost of mass incarceration in Los Angeles. Scholars from UCLA ethnic studies centers and the Million Dollar Hoods project will train UCLA students to work with the digital archives. “This new collaboration between Million Dollar Hoods and UCLA’s ethnic studies centers will preserve the documentary evidence of mass incarceration and its impact on people’s lives in Los Angeles while building a new digital bedrock for racial justice scholars and scholarship at UCLA,” said Lytle Hernández, director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. The project will encompass research across several communities of color, highlighting ways in which they are disproportionately affected by mass incarceration. “Archiving the Age of Mass Incarceration” is made possible by funding from a three-year, $3.65 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Leap on Consequences of Harsh Gang Laws

/0 Comments/in /by

Adjunct Professor of Social Welfare Jorja Leap spoke to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the impact of harsh gang laws in Georgia. Maurice Franklin, a 28-year-old father of four with no felony record or prior accusations of violence, is being held without bond after the victim of a drive-by shooting found his Facebook page and said she recognized him. Franklin faces up to 760 years in prison if convicted, despite having multiple alibi witnesses at the time of the crime, which  injured no one. The charges were increased because authorities allege the shooting was gang-related; Franklin denies that he is a gang member or had anything to do with the drive-by shooting. According to Leap, “heavy-handed charging decisions like that haven’t been shown to drive down crime.” She explained that cases like this one can also lead to further mistrust of police, particularly in communities of color. “I think this is a tragic case of prosecutorial overreach,” Leap said.

Read the article

Armenta on Biden’s Immigration Enforcement Plan

/0 Comments/in /by

Associate Professor of Urban Planning Amada Armenta spoke to the San Francisco Chronicle about Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s pledge to scale back laws requiring local police to participate in federal immigration enforcement. If elected, Biden plans to limit Section 287(g), which allows local governments to reach agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to aid in enforcing federal law. Armenta accompanied police officers on ride-alongs in Tennessee during the street-enforcement phase of 287(g). Her book about the experience noted that most of the immigrants held for deportation were detained for driving without a license. “Ending the ICE contracts would mean that millions of immigrants would be less afraid that a minor infraction (such as driving without a license or fishing without a license) would result in their deportation,” Armenta said. “ICE is not removing most people identified through 287(g) because they’re dangerous. They’re removing them because they have the authority to do so.”

Read the article

Armenta on Complex Relationship Between Latinos, Law Enforcement

/0 Comments/in /by

Associate Professor of Urban Planning Amada Armenta was featured in a Conversations with Changemakers interview about the complex relationship between Latino communities and law enforcement. The criminalization of most everyday activities of undocumented immigrants makes it almost impossible for local law enforcement agencies not to help with immigration enforcement through their routine patrol practices, even in sanctuary cities, Armenta explained. Through interviews, Armenta found that many Latino immigrants had favorable views of the police. However, negative interactions with police — including searches without clear warrants, being pushed and having guns waved in their faces — made many hesitant to call the police in the future. “The same aggressive practices that lead to police murders and mass incarceration are the same aggressive policing practices that lead to arrests of Latinos and Latino immigrants and mass deportation,” she explained. Law enforcement’s history of protecting whiteness and property have made the notion of a “just criminal justice system” remote, she concluded.

Watch the interview

Leap on Expansion of Community Safety Partnership

/0 Comments/in /by

Media reports on the Los Angeles Police Department’s expansion of its Community Safety Partnership (CSP) program cited Adjunct Professor of Social Welfare Jorja Leap, who led a yearlong evaluation of the strategy. CSP is credited with reducing crime and improving police relations with residents at city housing developments where the program has been implemented. Leap joined Mayor Eric Garcetti, Police Chief Michel Moore and other leaders at a news conference announcing the creation of a new bureau for CSP, which will be headed by the LAPD’s second Black female deputy chief. “I am grateful when the chief says, ‘It’s going to be a blueprint.’ And, yes, we are going to hold his feet to the fire,” Leap said. “The community put us on notice and said, ‘We want policing, but we want a different kind of policing. We want CSP, but we want it to be participatory and accountable.’ ” News outlets covering the announcement include the Los Angeles Times, LAist, NBC4 News and FOX11 News.

Read the L.A. Times article

 

Weisburst Research on School Police, Student Success Cited

/0 Comments/in /by

An Economist article discussing the effectiveness of school police officers cited research by Assistant Professor of Public Policy Emily Weisburst. In the 1990s, a federal crime bill included funding for “school resource officers,” leading to the widespread presence of police on the nation’s elementary, middle school and high school campuses. The article cited an ACLU report showing that 14 million students attend schools with a police officer on campus but no counselor, nurse, psychologist or social worker. Still, many teachers call for reform rather than removal of the officers, according to an Education Week survey cited in the article. Weisburst’s research assessed student success in Texas school districts that used federal grants to hire resource officers. She found that they experienced a 2.5% decrease in high school graduation rates and a 4% decrease in college enrollment.

Read the article

 

Leap Calls for Accountability Among Probation Authorities

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , /by

Adjunct Professor of Social Welfare Jorja Leap spoke to Witness LA about a lawsuit against Los Angeles County regarding a teenage boy who was allegedly administered estrogen as a behavioral control while in juvenile hall. After a physical examination while in detention, the boy, then 16, was reportedly prescribed estradiol, a form of the female hormone estrogen, to make him less aggressive, all without his parents’ knowledge or permission. The article noted that the case further supports the need for funding the independent Probation Oversight Commission (POC). As a co-author of the L.A. County Probation Governance Report and a proponent of the POC, Leap was disturbed by the implications of the lawsuit. “These troubling developments point to the need for real oversight with power to hold probation — and those from other county agencies who work inside probation’s facilities — fully accountable when they harm those in their care,” she said.

Read the article

Study of Community Policing Program Highlighted

/0 Comments/in /by

An opinion piece in the Los Angeles Daily News highlighted a UCLA Luskin evaluation of the Community Safety Partnership (CSP) program, launched in 2011 by the Los Angeles Police Department. The program assigns specially trained LAPD officers to work alongside residents to reduce crime by developing youth outreach, sports, recreational and other programs tailored specifically to their communities. The op-ed’s author, City Council member Joe Buscaino, called for expanding the program, describing it as “a radical departure from traditional policing.” He argued that CSP has “proven to reduce crime and establish great relationships and harmony between the LAPD and the community.” The yearlong UCLA Luskin analysis of CSP, led by  Adjunct Professor of Social Welfare Jorja Leap, assessed crime data, community-based research, interviews, focus groups and surveys. It concluded that although it is not perfect, the CSP program has reduced crime and made residents feel safer.

Read the op-ed