Law Enforcement’s Response to Mental Health Calls for Service

By Orange County Grand Jury on June 17, 2024 • ( 1 Comment )

Summary

Approximately 8.8 million Americans have a severe mental illness such as schizophrenia, severe bipolar disorder, or major depression with psychiatric features.1 Almost half of these people are treated on a given day.2 Without proper treatment, people with severe mental illness are at risk of experiencing negative outcomes that seriously impact them and the people around them.

Decades ago, law enforcement officers in Orange County became mental health clinicians without proper training. While State legislation has since required police agencies to increase mental health training, Orange County law enforcement agencies have surpassed the State’s expectations. The Orange County Grand Jury (OCGJ) believes that law enforcement in Orange County is a model for training law enforcement personnel on mental health crisis intervention techniques and collaborating with behavioral health organizations to improve service and reduce stigma for those affected by mental illness.

Background

In March 2021, two Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) deputies responded to a call regarding a deaf and autistic male adult named Isaias Cervantes, who was experiencing a mental health crisis. When deputies arrived, they asked Cervantes to stand up so he could be handcuffed as a safety precaution, and the incident escalated. Cervantes became combative with the deputies, which resulted in one of the deputies shooting him in the back. Consequently, Cervantes is paralyzed and recently won a $25 million settlement against the County of Los Angeles. The LASD Internal Affairs Bureau concluded that excessive force during this incident was warranted per departmental procedure, although Los Angeles County Risk Management prepared a Summary Corrective Action Plan that focused on numerous root causes for the escalation, including:

Desk personnel (i.e., dispatch) failed to ask about the nature of Cervantes’ mental impairment.
Desk personnel (i.e., dispatch) failed to send the Mental Evaluation Team as part of the response.3

Approximately one-third of individuals with severe mental illness have their first exposure to mental health treatment through a law enforcement encounter.4 Law enforcement officers are often on the front lines of psychiatric care, charged with responding to, addressing, and preventing a mental illness crisis. Responding to and transporting individuals with mental illness occupies more than twenty percent of a law enforcement officer’s time.5 Many law enforcement agencies across the United States are looking at an alternative approach to mental health calls for service by partnering with mental health professionals rather than handling these calls as the sole first responder. The OCGJ has found that law enforcement agencies throughout Orange County have adopted one or a combination of the following three models to address mental health calls:

Police Model. All mental health calls for service are handled by police with a clinician back-up.
Co-Responder Model. Trained mental health professionals are dispatched along with the officers responding to certain calls.
Alternative Mental Health Response. Only a mental health professional is dispatched to nonviolent calls such as attempted suicide, mentally ill, drug violation, drunk pedestrian, person down, trespasser, and well-being check.

Reason for the Study

Christian Glass was a geology enthusiast, a painter, and a young man beset by a mental health crisis when he called 911 for help getting his car unstuck in a Colorado mountain town last year. Convinced that supernatural beings were after him, he balked when sheriff’s deputies told him to get out of his car. Body camera video shows that the officers shouted, threatened, and coaxed. Glass hoped that officers would not break his car window, but they did, and the young adult grabbed a small knife. Then he was hit with bean bag rounds, stun gun charges, and, ultimately, bullets that killed him and led to a murder charge against one deputy and a criminally negligent homicide charge against another.6 Along with the Cervantes incident described above, this article is just one of numerous examples indicating that society needs to reevaluate police protocol when responding to mental health calls for service.

The OCGJ felt it was vital to research via interviews with law enforcement leaders, law enforcement educators, and mental health professionals how Orange County assists individuals who suffer from mental illness. It is important to note that this report does not focus on mental health issues that exist within the homeless community, although the OCGJ learned that a significant number of unhoused individuals suffer from mental illness, including substance abuse disorder, which leads to a significant number of police calls for service.

Treatment Advocacy Center, “Serious Mental Illness by the Numbers,” 2022. https://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org.
Ibid.
The Times Staff Editorial, “Sheriff’s Shooting Cost Taxpayers $25 Million. Where’s the Accountability?” Los Angeles Times, April 8, 2024.
Treatment Advocacy Center, “Road Runners: The Role and Impact of Law Enforcement in Transporting Individuals with Severe Mental Illness,” 2019. https://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org.
Jody M. Litchford, JD., “Partnering with Mental Health Providers to Improve Outcomes,” Police Chief, December 2023, p. 12.
Jennifer Peltz and Jesse Bedayn, “Many Big US Cities Now Answer Mental Health Crisis Calls with Civilian Teams – Not Police,” Associated Press, August 27, 2023.

Read the full report here: https://ocgrandjury.org/sites/jury/files/2024-06/Law_Enforcement%27s_Response_to_Mental_Health_Calls_for_Service.pdf