A homeless encampment cleanup in West Hills was postponed after the sharing of an email from a Los Angeles Police Department senior lead officer that the department called highly inappropriate. Video broadcast Wednesday June 28, 2023 on the NBC4 News at 11 a.m.
A homeless encampment cleanup in West Hills was postponed after the sharing of an email from a Los Angeles Police Department senior lead officer that the department called highly inappropriate.
The encampment cleanup was scheduled for Thursday in Shadow Ranch Park.
The email sent by a senior lead officer June 14 and shared by Film The Police LA on social media claimed people would be arrested and their belongings will be taken away.
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The email continued, "As always, do not approach these individuals experiencing homelessness. I want to make sure all are there at the encampment on the 29th so I can arrest them. This is a hush hush task force."
In a statement released Wednesday, the LAPD said the officer will receive training from the department's Homeless Coordinator's Office. The statement said the contents of the email do "not in any way represent the department's values, policies or practices related to people experiencing homelessness."
"The clean-up itself has been postponed for the moment and the SLO who authored the email will be provided extensive training by the Department’s Homeless Coordinator’s Office," the statement continued. "The solution to the problems associated with PEH (People Experiencing Homelessness) may require multiple attempts to provide services over the course of time. When enforcement becomes necessary it is in response to a criminal action. Enforcement will not be used as a means of creating a quick fix to a complicated situation, nor will it be based solely on the person’s homeless status."
The senior lead officer was not mentioned by name in the LAPD news release.
"That is not the way we're going to solve the problem in our city," Mayor Karen Bass said Wednesday. "We have no idea why that individual did that."
The Film The Police LA website is run by Hollywood resident and LAPD critic William Gude. He told the Los Angeles Times that he was sent a screenshot of the email from another Twitter user.
LAPD Capt. Francis Boateng will host a community meeting at Shadow Ranch Park on July 11.
City Councilman Bob Blumenfield, who represents the District 3, posted on Twitter that the email is extremely disturbing.
"I have spoken directly with the Captain of the @LAPDTopanga about it," he tweeted. "I'm glad that command staff is taking this situation seriously by calling it out, taking remedial actions and setting up a community meeting.
"Arresting people anywhere simply for being homeless is never acceptable."
He added in a post on Twitter that cleanups are supposed to be posted with a notice and accompanied by appropriate outreach.
