This assessment uses data provided by the LASD because the City of West Hollywood contracts with the LASD for policing services. The City of West Hollywood also contracts with a private security agency, Block by Block, that provides unarmed bicycle and foot patrols throughout the City’s commercial districts. Data on stops and other activities conducted by this agency were not provided for inclusion in this assessment. The LASD West Hollywood Station serves the City of West Hollywood and the unincorporated Universal CityWalk. Read more about the LASD West Hollywood Station and City of West Hollywood on the Departmental Context tab of this assessment.
West Hollywood, CA 2023
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
This assessment analyzes policing data, along with demographic and crime data, to identify which policing practices show patterns of racial disparities, and what factors may be contributing to those disparities.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) West Hollywood Station joined CPE’s National Justice Database project in June 2021. LASD shared data with CPE in order to receive analyses intended to support community and law enforcement collaboration on data-informed efforts to advance equitable outcomes in policing and public safety. This assessment analyzes use of force data from 2017 – 2021, traffic and non-traffic stop data from July 1, 2018 – December 31, 2021, and calls for service and officer-initiated activity data from 2017 – 2021.
Some key findings from the assessment are displayed below. These findings are described and explained in detail in the tabbed sections found at the top of this page. When viewing specific findings in each tab, readers can click the captions to filter results and scroll through supporting analyses to learn how we arrived at a finding.
How did deputies use force?
According to LASD West Hollywood Station data:
What should be investigated further?
According to LASD West Hollywood Station:
Racial disparities in recorded uses of force are apparent across most types of force. The 2 most common force types recorded overall were “Holds” and “Takedown.”
How can departments reduce disparities in use of force?
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Which people did deputies stop and search?
According to LASD West Hollywood Station data:
18% of all people stopped between 2018 and 2021 were Black.
20% of all people stopped between 2018 and 2021 were Latinx.
51% of all people stopped between 2018 and 2021 were White.
Which people did deputies search at stops?
At traffic stops, deputies searched Black people 5 times as often as White people.
Deputies searched 122 Black people who did not have any contraband, compared to 71 White people.
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Which people did deputies stop?
According to LASD West Hollywood Station data:
How can departments reduce disparities in non-traffic stops?
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How did deputies spend their time?
13% of these events involved Bodily Harm, Property Harm, or Threats.
All Other Events involved no report of Bodily Harm, Property Harm, or Threats.
What should be investigated further?
Deputies recorded 641 events as involving individuals experiencing mental health crises.
Some of these events may have been addressed by the Station’s Mental Evaluation Team, but CPE did not collect data on the responding deputies’ work unit assignments at the time each of these events occurred.
How can public safety resources be better aligned with community needs?
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NEXT STEPS TO REDUCE DISPARITIES
Our resources can help communities and law enforcement agencies assess solutions and take action to reduce racial disparities in policing and design more equitable public safety systems.
OUR METHODOLOGY
CPE’s approach to assessing racial disparities in policing uses population benchmarking combined with other strategies that allow us to perform standardized analyses across law enforcement agencies. Population benchmarking cannot account for out-of-town visitors to the City of West Hollywood, but it can provide meaningful information about the experiences of people interacting with the LASD deputies, even if some or many of the people who are stopped or subjected to force may have come from out of town. Visit the Justice Navigator homepage to learn more about the methodologies we use.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Funding for this platform was provided by Google.org, Players Coalition, Joyce Foundation, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and Lyda Hill Philanthropies. Funding for development of the National Justice Database infrastructure and the original analytic plan upon which these analyses are based was provided by the National Science Foundation, under awards led by Principal Investigators Phillip Atiba Goff, Jack Glaser, Amanda Geller, Steven Raphael, and Amelia Haviland.
Suggested citation: Center for Policing Equity (2023). West Hollywood, CA. Justice Navigator, justicenavigator.org.