The LAPD says it has opened its first criminal investigation into the dumping of homeless people on skid row after documenting five cases in which ambulances dropped off patients there Sunday. Police said the patients, who had been discharged from a Los Angeles hospital, told them they did not want to be taken downtown.
Los Angeles Police Department officials, who photographed and videotaped the five alleged dumping cases, called it a major break in their yearlong effort to reduce the number of people left on skid row by hospitals, police departments and other institutions.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday October 25, 2006 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 2 inches; 99 words Type of Material: Correction
Patient dumping: An article in Tuesday's A section about the alleged dumping of five hospital patients in downtown Los Angeles misspelled ambulance attendant James Fraley's name as Frailey and gave his age as 30. He is 25. The article also said Fraley told police that Los Angeles Metropolitan Medical Center had hired the private ambulance company he worked for, ProCare, to move discharged patients to skid row "on a regular basis" and that other private ambulance companies also take patients there. But contrary to the article, he did not specifically say that his company regularly participated in the practice.
Though police have documented other cases of hospitals dropping off recently discharged patients in the district, "this is the most blatant effort yet by a hospital to dump their patients on skid row against their will," LAPD Capt. Andrew Smith said.
Officials at Los Angeles Metropolitan Medical Center strongly denied that they had improperly handled the patients.
Dumping has emerged as a major political issue in Los Angeles, with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other critics saying that the practice exacerbates the ills of a district that already has the largest concentration of homeless people in the West.
Police said they were investigating whether the patients were falsely imprisoned during their transfer and also whether the hospital violated any laws regarding the treatment of patients.
The state Legislature recently passed a law aimed at cutting down on dumping across city boundaries, but it won't take effect until January.
Sunday's investigation began about noon, when an LAPD sergeant saw a patient being left in front of the Volunteers of America homeless services center on San Julian Street. He immediately called an LAPD videographer, who over the next few hours recorded four more ambulances arriving at the facility and leaving patients who had been discharged from Los Angeles Metropolitan. The hospital is on Western Avenue near the 10 Freeway.
Police also recorded interviews with the patients as well as with James Frailey, a 30-year-old attendant with ProCare, a private ambulance company.
Frailey told police that the hospital had hired his company "on a regular basis" to move discharged patients from the medical center to skid row and that other private ambulance companies also take patients to the area. He said the hospital appeared to have made "no prior arrangements" for the patient he transported Sunday, according to police records.
