San Francisco Crisis Intervention Team

Quick Facts:

Name of coordinating law enforcement agency:
San Francsico Police Department
Primary specialized response:
Police officers are trained to provide crisis intervention services and to act as liaisons to the mental health system.
Program start year:
2005 or earlier
Total number of officers in program:
It is unclear at this point how many officers are trained in the 40 hour specilized accadamy.

San Francisco Crisis Intervention Team

Contact:

Name:
MK Connor
Title:
Executive Director/Founder
Organization:
San Francsico Police Department
Address:
489 Clementina
San Francisco, CA
Email:
Marykate_caduceus@sbcglobal.net
Phone:
(415) 243-8420 x 306

Agency Information

Name of coordinating law enforcement agency:
San Francsico Police Department
Type of government that operates law enforcement agency:
Township

Specialized Response Description

Program start year:
2005 or earlier
Primary specialized response:
Police officers are trained to provide crisis intervention services and to act as liaisons to the mental health system.
Secondary specialized response:
Mental health providers, often as members of a mobile crisis team, are called in by law enforcement to provide crisis intervention at the scene.
Background information:
This program was founded in 1996 by concerned community stakeholders, Police Department reps, Mental Health professionals, politicians, and advocates. We begin researching the best way for Police to respond to individuals in crisis after multiple shooting deaths of MI people by SFPD, and sought alternate means of response. We looked deeply into why mental health workers are not afraid of or injured by their clients, and cannot legally or ethicly resort to force to control them. As a mental health worker of 25 years, I postulated that people who enter into the field of working with seriously mentally ill people do so for very personal reasons- either they have mental illness in their family, or they have direct experience with MI themselves. Without any prior knowledge of or information about, we came up with the identical model as the Memphis PD- which involved a cultural shift within the PD to ensure that people with "altered mental status" were not seen as dangerous "suspects" who deliberately were not responding to standard command and control tactics, and we developed the same specialized 40 hour training for officers who volunteered for this training. This program was adopted "in principle” by the Police Commission in 1997, but was not funded. It took from 1996 to 2001 to implement this program, as we met with tremendous resistance from Brass at all levels, as they had their own agenda for training and deeply distrusted input from the community. Ultimately, we sought the backing of an elected member of the Board of Supervisors, who helped us force it into existence by creating the funding for it. As it stands, it took so long to enact this training that at least 7 mentally ill people were shot by the SFPD who would not have been, had they had the specialized training. This is an ugly and bitter chapter in the SFPD's history, culminating with the shooting death of Idriss Stelley- a 23 year old AA man who had bipolar disorder & was a straight A student at a local trade school. He was in a crowded movie theater, began acting strangely, & his girlfriend called his mother to report that something was wrong & to ask what to do. His mother kept her on a cell phone while calling SFPD on a landline and asking for assistance in a mental health crisis situation that probably would involve involuntary hospitalization, or 5150 in CA WIC. The theater manager was calling the police at the same time, reporting that there was a large Black man who refused to extinguish his cigarette or leave the theater when requested- Idress had told all the other patrons of the theater to leave, and was smoking alone in the theater when Officers from 5 stations showed up, guns drawn, and stormed the theater, with such lack of Command coordination and accurate information that one officer shot another in the buttocks before staging a tactical assault on this man, starting with “command and control”, and escalating into lethal force. Idress was shot 48 times by offices, and died. Idress’s mother was on the phone with his girlfriend who was still in the theater as this occurred, and heard all 48 shots. This happened on month after the first class of officers graduated from the 40-hour training on Crisis intervention. None of those officers were in any of the units that responded that night. It is the contention of this writer that had the SFPD began training when the Police Commission approved it in 1997, that this young man, and other mentally ill people would still be alive. Please see the story “Use of Force” in the SF Chronicle from 2006. There is an extensive article on this shooting that details the serious and lethal errors made by the PD that resulted in the death of this young man.
Total number of officers in program:
It is unclear at this point how many officers are trained in the 40 hour specilized accadamy.
Catchment area:
The entire jurisdiction
Funding source(s):
  • Police Department
  • Local Mental Health Department
  • Community Mental Health Service Provider
    • Staff supported by funding:
    • Law Enforcement Officer
    • Program Coordinator

    Program Partners and Personnel

    Existence of planning and oversight committee:
    Yes, formerly
    Committee participants:
  • Law enforcement supervisory-level staff
  • Law enforcement leadership
  • Mental health (and/or substance abuse) leadership
  • Consumers of mental health services
  • Advocates
    • Mental health or advocacy agencies that participate in program:
    The Mental Health agencys currently involved are: The SF Mental Health Board, adn various direct service providers. These were advocasy agencys that created this program and programatic oversite in the first 7 years, befor it was instutionalized.
    Written agreement of roles and procedures:
    Yes
    Recruitment and selection:
    Officers are assigned.
    Program coordinator/boundary spanner
    No
    Officer Mike Sullivan of the SFPD was the coordinator for the SFPD- and Henanya Brooks of the SF Mental Health Board is the community coordinator of training.

    Training on Mental Health Issues

    Types of training on mental health issues:
  • ?
  • Basic in-service training for all patrol officers
  • ?
  • ?
  • ?
  • ?
  • Advanced in-service training for select patrol officers
  • ?
  • ?
    • Number of officers who receive advanced training:
    I am not sure, as in 2002 it was mandated that at least 25% of the force be trained within 2.5 years-
    Groups who conducts advanced training:
    • Mental health professionals (crisis workers)
    • Medical professionals (doctors or nurses)
    • Consumers
    • Community members
    • Family member of a person with mental illness
    Advanced training topics:
    • Recognizing symptoms of mental illness, and clinical issues
    • Co-occurring disorders
    • Psychiatric medications
    • Community resources (mental health services, etc.)
    • De-escalation techniques
    • Less lethal use of force options
    • Suicide prevention
    • The role of families and other supports in mental health treatment and recovery
    Advanced training methods:
  • Presentations (including panels, lectures, and/or PowerPoints)
  • Role plays
  • Site visits to community mental health facilities
  • Ride-alongs
  • Videotapes
  • Virtual reality/computerized simulations of mental illness symptoms
    • Other information on training:
    Police training in crisis intervention can save lives- the lives of police officers, as well as members of the community who have psychiatric or other disabling conditions. This has been proven in various cities where advanced training has been institutionalized and supported by the Police Departments. However, without institutionalized community oversight, the trainings tend to get watered down over a period of years, and 'stealth" budget cuts dictate what gets funded year to year. I do not see a national trend in maintaining the quality of training necessary to prevent death at the hand of the police- this is born out in the growing national data that cites increasing numbers of preventable deaths at the hands of Police. Until this is mandated by the DOJ as part of the ADA, and penalties are served for non-compliance, individual Police Agencies will find ways to excuse themselves from this training. By in large, Police Agencies do not see themselves as responsible to the broader community, which includes people with psychiatric disabilities. The culture of a police agency is paramilitary, complete with a hierarchy of command, training and authority in use of lethal force, and the deeply engrained norms of ”Bad Guys vs. Regular Citizens.” The Police are trained to shoot those who appear to threaten them, and by extension, society. It is sanctioned. Anyone not “normal”, or a regular citizen, is a threat. They do not want to be social workers or doctors, and rightfully so. They are justifiably angry that the Mental Health system has left ill and vulnerable people on the street, and that to this day mental health providers of one sort or another still refuse to take responsibility for the basic care and treatment of those least able to care for themselves. Officers are understandably cynical, distrustful, and sick and tired of dealing with the policy failures that leave the most vulnerable among us to die in the streets daily- as are other “first responders” like Paramedics and Fire Department personal. But as "First Responders", they must be trained to manage a broad range of crisis, including psychiatric crisis. At the very least, trainings should be mandated for all Police Agencies in recognizing how to manage a psychiatric crisis with less than lethal force. Within the ADA, there is language that holds responsible the municipalities or governing bodies that fail to train their employees in what is reasonable accommodation for disabling conditions. One would think that this would cover psychiatric disabilities, and that reasonable accommodation would include responding with appropriate techniques rather that lethal force. Thank you, Marykate Connor Executive Director Caduceus Outreach Services ( Providing treatment and services for homeless people outside of the mental health system for 20 years)

    Response Procedures

    Standardized dispatch questions:
    Not Sure
    Dispatch documentation:
  • Not sure
    • Incident documentation by responding officer:
  • Record information in log maintained by mental health personnel at the crisis drop-off location or by some other mental health organization
  • Not sure
    • Mental health professional available to support police responder:
    • No
    Officers permitted to transport people with mental illness to services when:
  • The person is being brought to a hospital for emergency evaluation
    • Officers allowed to transport a person without handcuffs:
    I do not believe that is is a law- however, as a standard of practice, officers handcuff people they are taking to psychiatric emergency rooms, even if those people are willing to go.
    Access to drop-off locations:
    Yes. It is open 24 hours a day.
    Procedure for streamlined intake and a "no refusal" policy for police referrals?
    Yes
    Location of drop-off center(s):
  • Psychiatric emergency room in general hospital
    • Length of time for drop-off and return to patrol:
    More than 45 minutes

    Program Sustainability

    Data collection:
    No
    Published evaluation:
    Unclear No
    Local media coverage:
    There hasnt been a lot of coverage- I cannot site any specific articles.
    Legislative funding or support:
    I am unclear as to how the current program is being funded- the Police Departments Budget is notoriously difficlut to read..
    About this information:

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