Three reform documents land on LA's desk this week, and the institutions they're grading just keep mailing out press releases like nobody read them. LA Politics and Urbanism Daily — it's Saturday. Today: who paid for the LAPD's own report card, a backyard-unit ordinance with no infrastructure plan behind it, and a homelessness victory lap dated before the funding froze. And I've got a Bass results page and a 40% churn number sitting right next to each other. Let's start with the cops. So with the RAND organizational assessment, before we get into a single finding, look at who commissioned it: the LAPD Foundation. The department's own fundraising arm bought the department a report card. That's the gap. And the LAist piece this week, leaning on American Institutes for Research, asks the right question — does any of this move response times and case clearance, or just rearrange the org chart? Every few years a new binder, same precincts. I'll believe it touches a patrol shift when somebody other than the Foundation signs the cover. Okay, the Bass page. 'Delivering Results in 2024' — permanent housing move-ins nearly doubled. Move-ins. Not stays. I spent this week on the 40 percent who cycle back outside, and retention isn't anywhere in this document. It's a Mayor's Office document — City, not County — with no County Pathway Home numbers attached. So when people ask whether the same person is being counted more than once, this shows the gap is built into the structure. Then there's the ADU ordinance amending the Municipal Code. More backyard units, more households on the same street grid, the same transit stop, the same curb. The zoning conversation moved; the infrastructure one hasn't caught up. And look at the County's SmallBiz Permit Express FAQ — expedited permits for a taqueria in unincorporated land. The county can fast-track a sandwich shop, but the city still runs ADUs through the same sludge this ordinance is supposed to fix? Richard H. Donohue, writing in RAND Corporation:
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), like many law enforcement agencies nationwide, faces challenges related to staffing and morale along with other organizational issues. RAND was asked by the Los Angeles Police Foundation to assess LAPD recruitment, hiring, and retention; the Department’s complaint system and disciplinary practices; and the LAPD’s organizational structure.
And there it is: this RAND assessment was prepared for the Los Angeles Police Foundation. The department's own fundraising arm paid for the department's report card. Right, and that's the problem. A private nonprofit ordered it, so the City Council and the Chief are under exactly zero obligation to do anything with it. The scope is broad, I'll give them that — recruitment, hiring, retention, the complaint system, discipline, the org structure. It's one of the widest outside looks LAPD's gotten. Broad and toothless can coexist, Hope. Six authors, a whole Justice Policy Program — and the recommendations go to the Chief of Police, not to anyone who has to answer to voters. From Cityclerk:
An ordinance amending Sections 12.03, 12.22 and 12.33, and repealing portions of Section 12.24, of Chapter 1 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code for the purpose of regulating Accessory Dwelling Units and Junior Accessory Dwelling Units in accordance with State law.
Okay, here's a rare one — the city actually did something it controls completely. It's a new ordinance amending sections 12.03, 12.22, and 12.33 of the Municipal Code, all about ADUs and junior ADUs, bringing it in line with state law. And they wrote in Movable Tiny Houses and manufactured homes as legit ADUs. The city is saying yes to a backyard unit that doesn't have to be a six-figure construction project. That has teeth. It is. But every one of those junior ADUs — five hundred square feet, carved into an existing single-family home — means another household on the same block, the same curb, the same bus stop on Vermont. The zoning conversation is sprinting. The infrastructure conversation hasn't laced up its shoes. Fine, but this is land use — the one lever the city can pull without County permission. That's what gets me. They can move alone on a JADU definition, but on homelessness it's always, 'well, LAHSA's got two parents.' From Los Angeles Mayor's Office:
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass today announced permanent housing move-ins have doubled since before taking office and thousands more Angelenos have moved inside than in 2022. She also highlighted historic changes to policy, practice and law to house people urgently, as well as efforts to build housing faster and in a cheaper way.
So this lands on our desk today: the Mayor's Office, 'Delivering Results in 2024' — permanent housing move-ins nearly doubled since Bass took office. Watch the dateline. This is the 2024 victory lap. Move-ins. That's the headline metric — 23,000 into temporary housing, move-ins doubled. And nowhere in here is the word that matters: stays. How many are still inside? Right, and it's the same provenance problem in a different jacket. This was written before HUD froze the funding this week, so that confident tone comes from a different reality than the one we're in now. We spent three days on this — 40 percent of Inside Safe placements cycle back to the street. Put that page next to this press release. A move-in you don't keep is a number, not a result. And notice what's not attached — no County Pathway Home figures. This is a City document, City math. The two-agency counting gap LAHSA's been living in? Still structural, still unaddressed in here. What gets me: the city can move alone. We just ran the ADU ordinance — city-only land use, done. So the 'we have two governing parents' excuse on homelessness only shows up when the numbers get inconvenient. L.A. gets a new LAPD reform report practically every election cycle — so what actually changes the stuff residents feel, like how fast a cop shows up or whether a case gets solved, instead of just reshuffling who reports to whom? Exactly. Moving boxes on an org chart is not the same as changing what happens on a call or in an investigation. The American Institutes for Research just wrapped a systematic review of police reform efforts, and the finding is pretty sobering: the evidence is still limited on which strategies produce measurable outcomes, even after more than 1,200 people were killed by police in 2024 and reform programs have been multiplying for years. Where the evidence gets more useful is on the mechanics. You need standardized data collection so you can track what's happening. You need mandatory training tied to revised policy. And you need external accountability — not the department grading its own homework. New Jersey's statewide use-of-force overhaul, evaluated by the National Policing Institute, bundled those pieces together: a new policy, a standardized online reporting dashboard, and required training. That's why it's treated as one of the more rigorous attempts to make reform stick. On oversight, Johns Hopkins found that after 2020, almost every state took some action on police accountability, but the scope varied wildly and major gaps remain. Passing a law and actually implementing it are two different fights. Here in L.A., the 2025 LAPD annual review says the department was operating under significant fiscal constraints while also dealing with wildfires and civil unrest, which is the real-world setting any reform has to survive. So if data infrastructure and outside accountability are what actually matter, what does L.A.'s oversight picture look like right now — is there even a clear authority that can enforce changes? That's the fight. LAist reports that the City Council and the Police Commission are both pushing for more authority over LAPD, and a charter reform panel didn't take up LAPD oversight structure until late 2025. Critics called it a political hot potato that got punted. There is one concrete operational experiment to watch: L.A.'s mental health crisis diversion program, which sends certain 911 calls to civilian responders instead of officers, is set to expand. That's the kind of specific, measurable change where you can track outcomes over time. For 2026, watch whether the city figures out who actually holds the accountability lever before the next crisis forces the answer. Here's Opportunity:
The LA County SmallBiz Permit Express Program is an initiative by the Los Angeles County Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) in partnership with other County departments aimed at streamlining and simplifying the permitting process for small, community-serving projects. The program is designed to expedite critical community benefits for local residents by providing a single point of entry and assistance for eligible small businesses seeking permits.
So the County's got SmallBiz Permit Express — a single point of entry, expedited permits and inspections for small businesses in unincorporated areas. One desk. One front door. And earlier in the rundown, we hit the city's new ADU ordinance amending the Municipal Code. The county can fast-track a taqueria, but if a homeowner wants a backyard unit in the city, it's the same old maze. Careful — this is unincorporated County, Matt. That's the patch the County actually runs directly. The city ADU process isn't theirs to streamline. Sure, but it's a proof of concept, in writing. The same week the city's congratulating itself on land-use action, the County's quietly showing what 'we made it faster' actually looks like in a PDF. And look who runs it — the Department of Economic Opportunity, through EPIC-LA, their permitting platform. There's a real system with a name behind it, not just a press release promising one. If you're following L.A. politics closely, check out California Governor's Race — daily 2026 race coverage on candidates, polling, debates, fundraising, and policy for voters who want more than horse-race takes. Find it wherever you listen to podcasts.
We've put links to every story from today's briefing in the show notes, so if something caught your ear, you can dig into the sources there. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the rest of your Saturday. That's Los Angeles Politics and Urbanism Daily for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.