Los Angeles mayoral candidate Nithya Raman is facing sharp criticism after telling a podcast host that police couldn’t act against someone using drugs on a sidewalk unless a crime was occurring — comments that have reignited scrutiny of her voting record on police staffing.
During an appearance on “The Iced Coffee Hour” with host Graham Stephan, Raman argued certain calls involving homeless individuals could be handled without armed officers. “Like the issue that you had with a person who is on your sidewalk, who is clearly homeless, who is maybe not someone you feel comfortable talking to,” she said. “LAPD would come out to that situation and not be able to do anything, right? If they’re not — if there’s not a crime happening there. If they’re not a threat to themselves.”
Stephan pushed back immediately. “Well, there is a crime. They’re doing drugs,” he said.
The comment drew a pointed response from Los Angeles Police Protective League Vice President Chris Wecker, who said Raman’s words don’t match her record. Earlier this year, Raman was one of four council members who voted against a January proposal funding 130 police recruits — the final piece of a 170-officer hiring plan meant to offset retirements. The measure still passed, 9-4.
“What has Angelenos scratching their heads is the stark contrast between what Candidate Raman is saying today and what Councilmember Raman voted on earlier this year,” Wecker said. “This year she voted against hiring 170 officers to replace those who were retiring. This wouldn’t have increased the number of officers; it simply would have kept the number of officers the same.”
“So, who do Angelenos believe: Candidate Raman or Councilmember Raman?” Wecker asked.
Wecker also rejected the notion that public drug use should fall to unarmed crisis responders, which Raman has proposed expanding. “We support unarmed responses to some calls for service. Public drug use is not one of those calls,” he said. “These are some of the most dangerous and unpredictable calls to which officers must respond. We can’t imagine a methamphetamine or cocaine user paying any attention to a clinician, and we believe the responding clinician would actually escalate the situation, putting them in harm’s way and necessitating an armed response.”
“It sounds good until good people start getting hurt,” Wecker added.
Pressed repeatedly during the interview on whether the city needs more officers, Raman defended holding staffing steady while shifting some duties to civilians. “I want to maintain the size of our police force. That’s what — that’s where we’re at right now,” she said. She argued that hiring civilian staff for administrative tasks and expanding alternative response teams would free up officers to focus on actual crime, and blamed bureaucratic delays for recruitment struggles.
When asked why she believes the current officer count is adequate, Raman acknowledged Los Angeles has fewer officers per capita than New York or Chicago, but called for studying call volumes before setting a staffing target.
Raman is running to unseat Mayor Karen Bass, whose 2026-27 budget proposal called for 510 new officer hires — a target the city adopted. Bass has also backed expanded civilian crisis response, announcing more than $2 million in federal funding in July for the city’s CIRCLE program, which sends unarmed mental health workers to certain nonviolent calls involving homelessness or mental health crises.
Alex Stack, a spokesperson for the Bass re-election campaign, said in a statement: “Nithya Raman voted against hiring more police officers every chance she got in city council, and we have less officers now directly because of her. Mayor Bass has been working to expand the size of the police force to 9,500 officers in order to reduce 911 response times and make our neighborhoods safer.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Raman and the LAPD for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
