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County aims to double number of teams pairing deputies with mental health experts

by City News Service • January 11, 2017

LOS ANGELES – The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to increase the number of law enforcement teams that include mental health clinicians, aiming to double resources on the street.

Supervisor Kathryn Barger recommended funding more “mental evaluation teams” and adding a triage help desk for deputies dealing with individuals suspected of having a mental illness.

“Proactive engagement that includes a mental health expert will reduce confrontations and provide access to treatment for individuals in crisis that may lead to a full recovery,” Barger said. “Expanding this vital program will also help law enforcement in its effort to avoid violent incidents, protect the public and save lives.”

The county piloted such co-response teams in the early 1990s and since then, the Department of Mental Health has partnered with 35 law enforcement agencies to develop teams with mental health expertise.

Sheriff’s MET teams responded to 1,154 calls from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016, Barger said in her motion, co-authored with Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas.

Roughly two-thirds of the time, those calls resulted in hospitalizations for mental health treatment and fewer than 1 percent resulted in an arrest, according to the motion.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department currently has 10 MET teams and wants 23 plus the triage desk.

Sheriff Jim McDonnell told the board that 23 teams represented the “very minimum” necessary to “do what’s right, do what’s compassionate.”

About 10 percent of law enforcement calls are estimated to involve individuals who are mentally ill, Barger said. She cited a USA Tuesday report that mentally ill individuals are 16 percent more likely to be killed by police and account for one in four of fatal police encounters as proof that these incidents are high-risk.

Even when encounters don’t turn deadly, advocates say those with mental illness are often jailed for minor crimes when treatment would serve them best.

DMH Director Dr. Jonathan Sherin read a letter from District Attorney Jackie Lacey to the board about her experience riding along with sheriff’s deputies in a mental evaluation team.

The team was first called out to deal with a man swinging a baseball bat, who Sherin said was a “classic first-break psychotic.” Later in the ride-along, the deputies encountered a man suffering from delusions who had called in a bomb scare. In both cases, the men — who could have been arrested for their actions — received treatment and were not taken to jail.

Lacey called the expansion of the MET teams “an idea whose time has come.”

Supervisor Hilda Solis called for a simultaneous review of operational guidelines followed by the MET teams, telling her colleagues that the teams were doing a good job of diverting mentally ill individuals into treatment rather than jail, but not as successful in de-escalating violent confrontations.

Solis speculated that was because co-response teams often weren’t deployed in situations with armed suspects or where the potential for violence was obvious.

The board directed the Sheriff’s Civilian Oversight Commission to consult with the LASD, DMH and the inspector general on possible improvements to the deployment model that would continue to keep mental health workers safe.

A report on funding for the expansion of MET teams and related services is expected in 60 days.

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Filed Under: Crime/ Safety, Politics

3 comments for "County aims to double number of teams pairing deputies with mental health experts"

  1. KJH says

    January 18, 2017 at 8:29 am

    I suggest MET Teams contact the Department of Veterans Affairs, their SMART Teams are leaders in these assessment techniques in the community since the 1990’s. They teamed up with Veterans Affairs Police in techniques, reducing injuries to patients and staff. Fundamentals of this training are also taught at the VA Federal Law Enforcement Basic Course to be used in decision making skills to assess arrest or mental treatment.

  2. Karin says

    January 15, 2017 at 11:19 am

    mental health issues more like a bunch of drug addicts who need tossed in jail! But no give them social security let them cry to the counselor then take the money and buy drugs! get rid of the black tar heroine problem please!

  3. caliingitasitis says

    January 12, 2017 at 9:38 am

    IF this really works it will be well spent money as compared the other foolish and wasteful use of the taxpayer’s money. 35 other agencies then they should have some real stats on the reduction of arrests of the mental ill for actions other than committing property crimes or violence criminal offenses. Is NYCPD using this model? Is Chicago PD using this model? IS Baltimore PD? Is Detroit? I hope they are not using a model from some much smaller city like Boise. We should have access to the data collected and the study conducted on this program TRANSPARENCY. Cost analyze is it really worth the money???? Not everything is about money but will society really be safer?????????????????

    It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage that we move on to better things.
    Theodore Roosevelt

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