Blog note: This Op Ed article is by members of the Santa Clara County Grand Jurors Association and refers to a Santa Clara County grand jury report .
SJPD's
Mobile Crisis Response Team responds to calls for those experiencing a mental
crisis. Photo by Lorraine Gabbert.
Recently,
several law enforcement agencies in Santa Clara County have unveiled
specialized units designed to de-escalate interactions with citizens who may be
in mental health crisis. San Jose PD launched a one-year pilot program in
October 2020 that links specially trained officers with clinicians from the
County’s Behavioral Health Services (BHS).
BHS has been active with its Mobile Crisis Response Teams (MCRT) since
January 2018.
Our
government officials are to be applauded for these efforts to improve outcomes
between police and citizens in mental health crisis.
But
more should be done at a time when this issue has the public’s attention like
seldom before, in large part because of the Black Lives Matter and
defund-the-police movements.
The 2018 Santa Clara County Civil Grand
Jury (CGJ) focused on this issue in its report, “Police and the Mentally Ill –
Improving Outcomes.” The report states 31 individuals were killed in
interactions with police agencies in our county from 2013-2017, nine of which
were citizens undergoing a mental health crisis.
Crisis
Intervention Training (CIT) exposes officers to the varied mental conditions
that could be encountered and how to deescalate such encounters. The grand jury
discovered that law enforcement agencies were providing CIT beyond the training
received in the police academy. The CGJ report recommends that each law
enforcement agency continue in their efforts to provide the additional CIT
training to every officer. The CGJ report also recommends agencies activate
MCRT teams and expand the use of these teams. Nearly every agency responded to
the report by stating it intended to give additional CIT training to every
officer.
Now,
two years after that grand jury report, law enforcement has taken some positive
steps, but concerns remain.
Positive
developments include the BHS MCRT deployment. Currently there are six available
MCRT teams to respond both to calls from a community help line and at the
request of law enforcement. Calls for assistance can result in service
referrals or field visits.
MCRT
delivered 310 field visits in 2019, but the number of responses soared to 675
in the first nine months of 2020, based on a November 2020 status report to a
Board of Supervisors subcommittee. Law enforcement made 386 referrals to MCRT
in 2019 and 487 between January to September 2020. Nearly every police agency
in the county utilized MCRT.
Not
so positive is the number of deaths in police encounters. From June 2018 to
October 2020, 11 citizens died at the hands of law enforcement in Santa Clara
County, five of which involved factors of mental illness based on the website
FatalEncounters.
Clearly,
this must improve. Our association’s recent survey of selected law enforcement
agencies showed incremental progress (Milpitas) and great progress (Gilroy, San
Jose, Mountain View and the Sheriff) in exposing every officer to additional
CIT training.
But
troubling is the county’s decision more than a year ago to reduce Sheriff’s
Office CIT training to a 24-hour course from 40 hours. The other major local
CIT provider, San Jose PD, continues with a 40-hour course. It is our
understanding that the class discussing the various kinds of mental conditions,
previously presented by the professional organization NAMI, has been
eliminated.
We,
the Santa Clara County Grand Jury Association, fear this is the wrong direction
for the times.
The
Black Lives Matter movement catalyzed a re-examination of the role police
should play when confronting persons in mental health crisis. An April study
from a Stanford Law School policy practicum, Safety Beyond Policing: Promoting
Care Over Criminalization, supports the use of mental health counselors rather
than officers in many situations involving the homeless and mentally ill.
Police
interactions with people in mental crisis will always be fraught with danger.
But the numbers of persons in mental health crisis who die in incidents with
law enforcement are still too high. The six MCRT teams are a great achievement,
but having CIT trained officers can only increase good outcomes.
County
law enforcement agencies must ensure all of their officers receive additional
CIT training, while the county boosts funding and deployment for its MRCT
teams.
San
José Spotlight
Luis Sanchez, Michael Krey and Harry Oberhelman are members of the Santa Clara
County Civil Grand Jurors Association.
MAY 17, 2021
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