Response 2 #ACLU & #CPI #InvestigationintoSDPD is not enough #RepurposeFunds from #SDPD into #TrainedMedicalStaff #PsychiatricTechnicians

This is in response to the open statement from ACLU and Civil Rights Allies Request Federal Investigation of SD Police Department’s Use of Force Against People with Mental Illness

https://www.aclusandiego.org/doj-sdpd-investigation-request/

Letter Signed by 25+ Community Leaders Calls for Dept. of Justice Investigation into SDPD Misconduct

https://www.aclusandiego.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/DOJ-Letter-Final.pdf

We appreciate this letter and have pushed our petition that the DOJ investigation the #StolenLives on a county-wide level with the Help of Color of Change to do the same.

By your research on this letter (also we wanted to include Shane Hayes, Marc Carrasco, and the many more which also should be included) Uaptsd believes you already have answered your question; they do NOT have adequate training and were never meant to handle mental health or psychiatric emergencies.

We are making the call to Center for Policy Initiatives, ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties, A New Path , NAACP San Diego Branch and ACCE to please consider initiatives to #DefundPOLICE and repurpose funds to community based programs and mental health hospitals and facilities. Not to encourage more money into training.

From The Huffington Post’s

Police Handling Mental Health Calls Need Medically Trained Backup

“We have seen how dramatically mental health’s impact on our communities has increased, as seen in the sheer number of calls for service on police agencies. In fact, research has identified that upwards of 20 per cent of police calls for service are mental health-related, and it’s important to note that the majority of them are not as a result of a criminal act.”

“To put this in perspective, we have the police attending response calls for a medical emergency with limited education on the subject and seldom with direct access to the needed medical expertise for such a response. This sounds like a recipe for disaster.

To be fair, we are seeing the police better-trained on how to recognize and understand mental illness, and how to de-escalate a call so that it does not become a violent situation. I am not suggesting the police don’t try or don’t care.

In fact, they care enough to attend these extremely difficult calls with the hope of helping someone in dire need of medical help and, in my experience, police have become some of our community’s most caring frontline mental health workers. The problem is that they are not frontline mental health workers, nor should the be.

“If we want to improve the lives of the mentally ill and better prepare the police, then having the right responder at the right time is the right thing to do.”

We need experts in the field of mental illness attending mental health calls with the police.

OR demand Mental Health Facilities exclusively handle mental health, substance abuse and psychiatric emergency.

The city and county budgets need to prioritize this service. Please take into consideration proposals for more community based programs NOT more money funnel into police departments.

Thank you~