Los Angeles City Council President Paul Krekorian was demanding answers Friday from Burbank officials after his office acquired a video showing a pair of uniformed officers emerge from a Burbank police car as they dropped off in a neighboring city a homeless man in need of aid.
“We have known for years that neighboring cities were dumping unhoused people on the streets of Los Angeles. Here is the proof,” Krekorian said as he showed the video to reporters at a City Hall press conference earlier today.
Krekorian described what is in the video. “A person was discharged from that vehicle in handcuffs. The handcuffs were removed. The person fell to the sidewalk, clearly experiencing a mental health crisis, as well as physical injuries, and the officers of the Burbank Police Department got back to their vehicle and drove back to Burbank without giving any aid to this person, without determining whether there was anyone who could provide services to this person,” he said.
“We in Los Angeles have worked long and hard to bring our unhoused neighbors off the streets by building interim shelters, tiny homes, navigation centers and supportive housing. Meanwhile, neighboring jurisdictions have simply removed unhoused people from their streets and dumped them on ours,” Krekorian said. “This is inhumane and inexcusable.”
The video was obtained from a security camera and recorded directly in front of the Krekorian’s North Hollywood district office Wednesday around 8 a.m. After viewing the video, office staff located the abandoned man, whose name was withheld. They called the Los Angeles Fire Department to provide medical aid. The man was later taken to a nearby medical facility.
Krekorian is calling on the City Attorney, District Attorney and the Attorney General of California to investigate both this incident and the alleged ongoing practice of one jurisdiction dumping its homeless and indigent residents on the streets of another. The council president said that he introduced a motion Thursday to have the full council vote on the issue.
Part of the motion also requests the city of Burbank and its mayor and City Council to respond to this incident and provide the city of L.A. with their policies on homelessness, relocation of unhoused individuals and policy changes that will be made as a result of the incident.
The L.A. Council’s Rules, Elections, Intergovernmental Relations Committee, as well as the Housing and Homeless Committee are expected to consider the motion next.
Neither a representative of the city of Burbank nor the Burbank Police Department responded to a request for comment Thursday afternoon.
Krekorian said he believes the Burbank mayor and City Council are not aware of what happened. KNX News reported that at least one City Council member they contacted requested to see the video.