we took what was learning domain 47 which is a four-hour minimum and be doubled back and talk all of those classes in 8 hour intervals bringing in the mental health experts and teaching them through interactive role-playing modules and a higher level of training was called for than in the state mandate. we train to 1373 officers in the course. officers are mandated to attend a refresher training. for a time, basically 18 months, we took 8 hours of that training and we brought in mental health experts. we ran 8 hours of training on this subject matter.

that way, we knew that we would reach the advance officers who had a chance to do this or not. therefore, they increased the number of officers and make sure that they knew to get a refresher on tactical to medication techniques in dealing with members of the public. we trained another 1040 officers in that time. moving forward, where do we go? what happened was -- as i mentioned, that was a 40-hour course and it was presented of sight and there was a tremendous amount of alamance and percent in stocks that were identified as really important. it was expensive to run and it was taught in an off site facility. the mission we got as the training division was to take the elements of that training

and bring this in house and thereby increase our ability to present a class to our officers on a more regular basis, so that is what we're doing. we have developed a 24 hour course and taken those elements and presented it in a shorter time frame. we are set to roll-out in february of 2011. this will have all of the construction elements, because the nature of mental and illnesses, developmental disabilities, elevators -- indicators of mental disabilities for.

we have pulled what was positive and effective from a longer version of training in house and presented more frequently. going to the 24 hour model will allow us to present for once a month. this is three times the number of officers per year than we were able to train under the old model. >> thank you. as you are aware, we will have a meeting tomorrow. the commission has decided that his mental health issue is a priority given the need to walk down the block here in san francisco. the officers are encountering many more health issues than any outside the country. i think that our officers are

well-trained and they appreciate the training. it has taken a lot of time and energy for the officers to deal with these issues. we cannot have psychologists on the street. this is a priority for the commission. thank you for this report. i know that the commissioner has a question for you. >> good evening. i want to understand the time line. march of last year, the chief made presentation to the commission. i thought it laid out a plan for speeded up implementation and the implementation training. based on tonight's presentation, it sounds like that stopped in june. maybe we can help clarify if this has stopped in june or in the past six months. >> the last presentation was in

june. we need to bring this into a model that will work with our training so that we can roll this out more frequently and get more officers involved. that is the work that has been going on since july and august. what we have is the complete package and we can fit this into our training. >> why did it stop in june? because the funding ran out? my lasting impression from the last testimony was that the course that was talked about, i was told it was because of

funding. i am trying to understand. >> we are talking about from two different sides of the same thing. i cannot speak about what the chief gave in his presentation. i can say that when it came down to the administration, this was one of the things on the table, to find a way to be presented so that we could accelerate our presentation. we wanted to figure out how we could do new relationships with the people who have been doing our training and then getting the curriculum down and say this is exactly what we are doing. this has been the focus of our work. >> was a funding issue that is stopped? i just want to understand this. >> it was a funding issue. we were paying a lot of money to

have it up at the presidio. we have to take it back to the police academy. we will be meeting tomorrow and the commission has a great interest in this topic. to make the record clear, someone told me that this is actually 8 times a day. i want to correct the record. this was placed by our officers on a typical day in san francisco. the plan you have talked about tonight, 30 officers per course. that is once a month. >> once a year.

>> roughly 400 officers have not been trained. we're talking about for years. >> considering that you have had a thousand offices go through the course, there is a number of officers that have had that an additional training that has been done. now you are looking at rolling more people through. >> from the numbers we have heard about how many times they encounter these situations which often escalate into violence, one of the things we should talk about is the limited budget. this is something worth looking critically at. i think it is important to talk about in the priorities. i appreciate the effort made.

i would like to say that the staff has put their foot to the pedal. i would like to remind -- commend the chief for that. a group is going to los angeles. i will be going. i would like to applaud this effort. thank you. >> and thank you for your presentation. when was san francisco's plan cited as a model turned down -- the plan cited as a model? >> this is models for other agencies that are looking at.

>> thank you. >> what is required by the state legislature in terms of the hours? >> this is 8 hours. we will do three times that. . for continuing professional training, every two years they modify. i believe that it rounds out to 24 hours of training in the perishables skill sets which with the arrest and control techniques, tactical communication, also the first day that officers are mandated to have.

they are allowed it to build from whatever they can to supplement that. we run an advance officer continual training. every two years, you are required to get the train -- training. then we had the hours. that is covering all areas, all within that, there was two years and we chose to fill that it at less -- we chose to fill that in mental health. >> thank you. >> i will keep this short because we need to dedicate an entire commission meeting to this. training is an important piece. there are many other areas to

make sure that if someone calls on a mental health call, that is attributed to the officer immediately. there are many other pieces we can talk about in the future. i look forward to that discussion. february, 2011 training is being rolled out. what departments have been working to develop that training? there has been several experts invested in training and to place at the presidio. >> i did not bring the curriculum. i don't want to speak out of turn but we can provide for you for your discussions the curriculum and that would identify specifically the partners.

in working with presenting the first course. those agencies would have been involved. commissioner chan: what i do notice is that there are a number of people who barricade themselves in a room, and i just want to highlight that as something to consider as you roll out the 24-hour trading, because that is something that is in council commonly. that area needs to be dissected and run through. >> ok, and i do not know if i pointed that out specifically to you, but there are tactics that are used to be escalate the situation, so that is part of the trainee. -- are used to de-escalate the

situation. president mazzucco: thank you. commissioner slaughter: you went through four sets of trenni? is that correct? >> that is correct. -- four sets of training. you are looking at 100 officers per year. commissioner slaughter: and last year, you were able to get through three of the sessions, so there was a lot of discussion. unfortunately, you were not able to do the fourth of the four sessions last year. >> yes, and i think partly, what you are doing is you are running up against the fiscal year, the calendar year, and the direction we were going in is let's find a way we can accelerate this and present the import material to a

greater number of officers, and that is what the inspector has refocused on, to make sure the quality is there, the elements are covered, and we are getting more of our officers into that. commissioner slaughter: so if i am doing the math right, you will be doing more than previously? >> that is correct. commissioner slaughter: thank you. do you know how we compare to other departments around the state and around the country in terms of the percentage of officers, sworn officers, and officers actually on the beat who have been able to get through 20 or 40 hours of mental health training? >> i do not have that figure, but i can say is that there is a reason why we are the model. many agencies present trenni to their officers, very critical, but as i mentioned, in san francisco, we have very high

contact with the community, and we have a desire to serve that community and serve it well, so we invest a lot of time in these trainings. other agencies do not have as much flexibility in their training, but they are not able to do as much as we are. in one area, i know we had outside agencies come throat. -- come through. commissioner slaughter: the last thing, i just want to follow up on what commissioner chan said, those in the community that have been instrumental in the training, making sure they are involved and know what we are doing and know what the plan is when we roll out. i wish you good luck and appreciate the devotion from the commissioners you are going to be meeting next week and look forward to more substantial time

that we will spend on it at future meetings , so the hd. >> thank you. note -- president mazzucco: thank you. commissioner dejesus? commissioner dejesus: last year, it was roughly half of the department that had the training. it is still only half of the department that has had the training, and that is very disconcerting. one of the things that we talked about since the audit came out, the department was certainly concerned about training the rest of the officers, getting the training as soon as possible, and i of concern about whether or not the department is really training the officers beat -- and i have concern about whether or not the department is

really training the officers. if you have almost 2000 people in the department, and there is no focus in getting that training, and that is alarming to me. even if you do three times as many officers, that is a drop in the bucket considering the number of officers out there without the training, without knowing how to use the weapon, because that is what they do in the mental health community. they do not shoot to their people. they do not taser their people. they'd have ways to talk them down and to the escalate -- de- escalate. we are told they were going to look into that. it is one year later. we have 120 people trained. that is lips service. what concerns me most is that everybody is saying we need tasers to deal with the mental health unit but we can actually get training to our officers that can assist them in dealing

with difficult issues on the street. i do not think that because you are mentally ill that you should be taste -- tased. i just do not. is there really a commitment to train our officers, or not? and if they do not, just tell us that. tell us that you would rather tase people. 120 officers with 2000 on the force is not acceptable. [applause] >> , you know, commissioner, i understand. i respect your passion on this issue. i can say this. this has been the focus in the trenni decision -- division to find a way to accelerate this training. we have spent 10 years presenting this trading at one rate, and we needed to find a

way to accelerate that, that we could ensure that all of the important elements were in there and that we could do it responsibly and do it regularly at a more accelerated pace, and it takes time to do that. it takes time to develop that, and a lot of work was put into that, and we are very proud. we need our officers to have this training, to get that. it takes time and effort to put these things in order. commissioner dejesus: the was in charge of this last year? i know it was not you, because you are new. who was in charge? and do we have in the budget the money to do it additional classes to get the entire force trained? -- to do additional classes? >> we have budgeted this out. commissioner dejesus: 4300?

>> we know what it will cost to do this class. -- for the 300? the majority of the cost for presenting this class is money's needed -- moneys needed to bring in the first line, and experian to information are officers need. korea -- forest lawn, experiential -- first line, experiential information our officers need. i was not involved in the decisionmaking process in 2000, but that is why we looked at an outside location to provide the training. that was probably one of the reasons. you just spent three years doing this at a very high rate while continuing freshman trading --

training and technology training. so you had a tremendous number of different trainings that were going on at your facility. and now, you have an opportunity to use that facility for this training. and that is going to, you know, involve a number of days in the building and schedule and officers away from the street and rotating but -- that, all while you have a reduced number of officers on the street. so you have to be able to schedule officers to go away from their primary duty operations. you need to do it at a measured pace that the stations and investigation bureaus can handle, and so that is part of this consideration, 2:00 p.m., to room do you have at your facility? how many officers can you poll from all of the areas at one

time -- can you pull? i totally respect your passion on this issue. they have what we for our officers, but training is a balance, and we have to find ways to move in and get it going on a regular basis that is much faster, and this is three times the rate that we have done over 10 years. commissioner slaughter: i am not really good at math, but if you say that, that is $96 thousand if you are training once a month for these officers. first, it is $1.20 million to buy the tasers, and you would have to train that. you just cannot handle a taser and send them on the street. -- handed them a taser. are we going to get educated and

trained officers to deal with the mental health issue on the streets, where are we just want to buy new weapons to use against the mental health? the same amount of time for training. i guess what we should do is concentrate on the budget that comes up and make sure the we have $200,000 in the training for mental health, you know? -- that we have $200,000? i hear what you are saying, but it really comes to wear your priority is, and it doesn't really sound like you have had the priority -- it really comes to knowing where your priority is. who leads this department and where the priorities lie is really going to answer this question. president mazzucco: before we continue, i just want to caution the commission. obviously, this is not an agenda item, so it is not on for full conversation, which it has turned into, but i want to make sure that with my conversation

with a couple of commissioners, we need to separate the taser issue from the mental health issue, and we are going to do that. and i disagreed with you on that issue, commissioner dejesus. tasers r. hopefully not going to be used on mentally ill patients but used on dangerous individuals who have only a desire to attack and injure our officers and other people in the public. they will be used on individuals who unfortunately are under the influence of narcotics, and as we learned last time, those are the people that this does not work on. the traditional beanbag and pepper spray, they do not work. this is not for the sole purpose of tasering the mentally ill. that is preposterous, and that is not consistent with this. i want to separate those issues. i think professionally we should, but i just want to make

that clear. commissioner dejesus: commissioner mazzucco, you do not speak for this body. this body will determine if we separate them. i feel strongly about that, and we have to follow the procedure, and not one commissioner can speak for the entire body, and i am sorry. i read the articles, and every time tasers come up, there is propaganda that is used in the press over and over, and it is disingenuous to say that it is a separate issue. that is the way they are trying to sell it to everybody, and i think that is really improper and inappropriate, and, you know what? we need to be transparent and put it on the table. [applause] president mazzucco: i am well aware of that, and quite frankly, i, like all of the other commissioners, have just one vote and what to look at

this intelligently for the benefit of the community and our officers, so with that in mind, i will turn it over to dr. marshall. >> the conversations that you are going to have, you and commissioner hammer and commissioner chan, can you give me an update on what you are trying to do? >> the department made a trip to memphis, which is a national leader in mental health protocol training. it is actually a whole system, not just a trainee. i believe they have a lot to share -- not just training. they will talk about what are the other elements, because it is more than about training. training is a very important

piece, but there is a whole system that needs to be in place. there will be a big discussion, but it is not the whole discussion. we will put up some proposals about what we think we should put in place in the near future. >> so if i am to hear you, this committee is going to try to improve upon for their best practices? is that correct? supervisor alioto-pier: -- president mazzucco: commissioner slaughter? commissioner slaughter: you said only 120 officers had been trained, and that is contrary to what the chief has said, already accelerating this pace as faced as we can. of course, we know that we have 2300 or so sworn officers.

when you look at that 900, close to 100 officers, you have significantly more actually on the street that have received this training, and to suggest that only 120 have received that is not correct. commissioner dejesus: not in total, last year. commissioner slaughter: commissioner dejesus, a respected your time. i would second what commissioner mazzucco said. i think it is critical that this working group help inform the best practices