A 25-year study of officer-involved shootings in San Diego County revealed 79 percent of them — about 8 in 10 — involved people who suffered from mental health issues, substance abuse or both. More than half of all people booked into local jails in 2017 had methamphetamine in their system, authorities said, and about 30 percent of jail inmates are on some sort of medication for mental illness.
On Tuesday, San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan, flanked by a handful of police and community leaders, unveiled a report designed to help the region transform how the justice system responds to people facing mental health problems, drug addiction and homelessness.
The 76-page document — the culmination of more than a year of work involving more than 200 stakeholders — contains 30 recommendations in four categories: mental health prevention and intervention; acute crisis response and stabilization management; mental health diversion; and data, outcomes and information sharing.
Some of the recommendations seem relatively simple, like publicizing an existing cellphone app that provides information for families affected by mental illness. Others involve long-term planning like creating a crisis stabilization center that offers emergency resources for those with mental health and substance abuse issues.
“We have a crisis in our community that cannot be solved by public safety agencies alone,” Stephan said. “Nor can it be solved by public health agencies alone. There needs to be a sea change in the way we address the needs of people living with mental illness in our community who find themselves involved with the criminal justice system.”
Stephan also announced Tuesday that her office would immediately put two of the recommendations into practice: funding de-escalation and crisis intervention training for all law enforcement officers and deputies within the county
and by distributing a 911 checklist that people can use if they need to summon emergency help for a family member in mental crisis.
“These two initiatives represent a step toward a new approach for mental health in San Diego County, one that improves the way that law enforcement handles individuals facing mental health challenges while keeping our neighborhoods safe,” Stephan said.
People suffering from mental issues or those under the influence of drugs often come into contact with police, officials said.
Last year, officers and deputies across the county were sent to more than 53,000 calls involving someone with a mental health issue.
To help officers resolve these encounters safely, the District Attorney’s Office has pledged $1.5 million in asset forfeiture funds to train all law enforcement officers in the county to de-escalate confrontations involving people who are mentally ill or on drugs.
The training will be offered as a one-day or a three-day course, depending on the agency’s needs
, and will include classroom instruction led by Psychiatric Emergency Response Team experts, role-play scenarios and work with a video simulator called the MILO Range Theater to better immerse officers in potential scenarios.
Officers will also be taught to better recognize the symptoms of methamphetamine toxicity, which can sometimes be confused with a mental health crisis.
The MILO Range Theater, purchased by the District Attorney’s Office, is portable, so the training can be conducted at various locations across the county. Courses are expected to begin in the summer.
Escondido police Chief Craig Carter — president of the San Diego County Police Chief’s and Sheriff’s Association — said the training will help officers handle mental health and drug abuse situations “more efficiently, a little more safely... and with the least amount of force necessary.”
The curriculum builds on about 27 hours of de-escalation and mental health crisis training that officers already receive in the police academy.
Together with San Diego’s National Alliance on Mental Illness, the District Attorney’s Office also helped develop a 911 Mental Evaluation Checklist card. The card details information callers should provide to dispatchers if a loved one experiencing a mental health crisis becomes a danger.
It also tells people what will likely happen when police arrive, so that families and friends know what to expect. The cards will be distributed to hospitals, counseling centers, police stations and jails.
“The idea is to provide more information to arriving officers about the person’s mental state and history before they arrive on scene,” Stephan said. “Hopefully, this will help improve the outcome of the interaction.”
Dr. Luke Bergmann, director of the county’s Behavioral Health Services, said the two initiatives will provide an important foundation for other changes to come.
“Law enforcement officers equipped to de-escalate people experiencing psychiatric crisis will be able to divert people form the often traumatizing experiences of arrest and jail into healing experiences with health care and social support,” Bergmann said.
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