San Mateo Council Backs Police Crisis Response Pilot Project

SAN MATEO, CA — San Mateo’s City Council on Tuesday backed a pilot program that will team mental health professionals with police officers to help people in crisis, officials said Tuesday.

The Community Wellness and Crisis Response Pilot Project, described as a "compassionate approach" to law enforcement, is a countywide program.

The county’s Board of Supervisors earlier this month approved funding for the program’s launch in the county's four largest cities by population in an effort to diffuse volatile 9-1-1 crisis calls.

The program will also be administered in Redwood City, South San Francisco and Daly City, pending local government approval in those cities.

San Mateo’s City Council voted 5-0 in favor of moving forward with the program.

Under a cost-sharing agreement, the four cities together will contribute $408,388 and the county $468,388 for a total cost of $876,776 in the program's first year and a two-year total of approximately $1.5 million.

“This is a critical strategy to better serve our community,” San Mateo councilmember Joe Goethals said at Tuesday night’s council meeting.

“More than half of the county jail are individuals suffering from some form of mental health issues. Interventions like this I support very much because (mental) health professionals are a proven solution to reducing incarceration in favor of treatment and diversion.”

The program builds upon local experience providing alternatives to jail and costly and often overburdened hospital emergency rooms.

This new program "allows law enforcement and mental health providers to work together to respond to incidents of behavioral crisis providing optimal support, safeguarding life for all community members," San Mateo Police Chief Ed Barberini said earlier this month.

"We are proud to be one of four cities in our county to pilot this innovative program, hopefully establishing the framework for other law enforcement agencies to follow in the future."

Clinicians will work a 40-hour week under the two-year agreement approved Tuesday.

Their hours and availability will be based on each city's needs.

Clinicians will work in each city to build relationships and will be deployed by trained 9-1-1 dispatchers.

The licensed mental health clinicians will join law enforcement officers as they respond to those experiencing a mental health crisis.

The clinicians are expected to be embedded in the departments by April.

"The timing couldn't be better as public safety incidents involving individuals with mental and behavioral health issues have soared during the pandemic," Board of Supervisors President David Canepa said.

"This is the compassionate approach to take and I have no doubt it will better the relationships between law enforcement and the public that can sometimes be strained."

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, people experiencing a mental health crisis "are more likely to encounter police than get medical help. As a result, two million people with mental illness are booked into jails each year."

A 2019 nationwide survey by the Treatment Advocacy Center, a Virginia-based nonprofit group, in cooperation with the National Sheriffs' Association, found that 10 percent of law enforcement total budgets was spent responding to and transporting persons suffering from a mental illness.

"Many community members have asked us to find new approaches for supporting those in mental health crisis," Redwood City Mayor Diane Howard said.

"This collaboration with mental health professionals is an important step forward for our residents and employees."

Stanford's John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities will evaluate and work to refine the program.