At our October 10, 2026 meeting the Park Mesa Community Council advocated for the community by inviting L.A. Care to address the question of representation in their staffing at our local Community Resource Center at 5710 Crenshaw (Also of note, is that the location’s website is not representative). They brought seven representatives from various parts of the organization to our meeting to hear our concerns. Charlie Robinson, Chief Health Equity Officer was on hand as their lead representative.
Board members sounded frustrated noting that staffing with African American community members was requested three years ago before the opening and has been discussed on several occasions since, but not yet achieved. L.A. Care said they could not fire people to achieve those goals, nor could they share the ethnicity of the five L.A. Care and two Blue Shield current staff members. Stakeholders suggested they transfer staff and participate in the upcoming hiring fair being held by Council District 8.
Tensions were high at the meeting during the LA Cares discussion and a concern about a gas station known to pepper spray customers. A stakeholder questioned why she had not heard a response from LAPD a week after filing a police report about being pepper sprayed.
Senior Lead Officer Saudia Hutchins took that question head on saying that she was aware of the case and the gas station, that the detective was building a case to address the problem and that she did not know how the detective was proceeding.
To the earlier and ongoing conversation on representation, she shared that Latinos make up 60% of LAPD and there is no problem hiring in the Latino community. African Americans make up 9% of the LAPD and in her experience African Americans were reluctant to work for LAPD. Further, she was in a position to review every African American applicant for the purpose of discovering challenges in the hiring process, and she found that often the candidates were not yet ready. They were not meeting the requirements of paying their bills on time. She now works in a capacity to pre-vet and mentor applicants so they will be successful in getting hired.
Officer Hutchins also shared that the community should patronize Vallarta, to help keep them in business and not patronize gas stations with pepper spray.