Burbank police clear officers seen in video leaving distressed man on L.A. sidewalk

The Burbank Police Department said its officers did not violate policy after Los Angeles’ City Council president released a video he said showed the officers dumping a distressed homeless man on the sidewalk.

Council President Paul Krekorian released the video in June and called for an investigation into the officers’ actions. The man was left outside Krekorian’s North Hollywood office.

Burbank police said in a news release Wednesday that it concluded its investigation and “determined that the police officers’ actions did not violate Department policy and there was no evidence of misconduct.”

The department said it interviewed witnesses and reviewed police body camera video, footage from inside the patrol vehicle, surveillance video and service logs.

Police also denied that the man was homeless and said investigators spoke with a person who identified as the man’s landlord. The man has been renting a room in a house in Sylmar, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, for several years, Burbank police said.

The FBI’s Civil Rights Division reviewed the circumstances surrounding the incident as well as the internal investigation and “declined to take any further action,” police said.

In an earlier statement, Burbank police said that it had responded to a call near a Burbank hospital about a naked man sitting at a bus stop. The man said he had left the hospital voluntarily and asked to be taken to the North Hollywood metro station. En route the man asked to be let out of the vehicle so he could get a cup of coffee, police said.

Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank said in a June statement that there had been an incident on public property near the hospital, and that among the calls made to police was a hospital security guard who needed help with a person who appeared to be in distress.

“The police officers transported the man to North Hollywood based on his request, in an effort to assist him,” Burbank police said Wednesday. “Since he was not detained or in police custody, officers released him during transport when he asked to be let out of the police car.”

The video released by Krekorian showed two Burbank police officers letting the man out of the back of a police vehicle before driving away.

The man, who appeared to be struggling to stand, dropped to his knees and crawled a short distance before lying on the ground.

Krekorian said at a June news conference that there have long been suspicions that nearby cities push “their unhoused population into the city of Los Angeles” instead of providing care.

“The person fell to the sidewalk, clearly experiencing a mental health crisis as well as physical injuries,” he said. “And the officers of the Burbank Police Department got back in 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.”

“They dumped him in North Hollywood,” he added.

Krekorian said after his office became aware of the video, staffers drove around looking for the man and got him medical care through the city’s fire department once he was located. The man told the staffers that he believed he had a broken leg and had recently become homeless outside of the city of Los Angeles, according to Krekorian.

Krekorian’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.