>> mr. president, we have a quorum. we are also joined by the chief of police. >> welcome to the wednesday, february 9th scheduled meeting of the san francisco police commission. we have line item number5 which

is discussion and possible action to adopt the plan for the responses to the incidents involving individuals with mental health needs. we are taking this out of order. we are taking public comment. we have a very heavy agenda including some closed session matters involving disciplinary matters. the commission has to meet to review some resmae is it. we have a very busy agenda. without further ado, i would like to comment about line item 5. >> lie down 5 is a discussion and possible action to adopt a plan for police department response to incidents involving individuals with mental health needs. -- line item 5 is a discussion and possible action.

>> the commission felt strongly that the number of mental health issues at the city is faced with been that our officers have to deal with on a daily basis is disproportionate to other cities. on this has caused us all great concern. you need to only walk down a few blocks in san francisco and see people talking to themselves. our officers have to deal with them when they go off. this is a big concern for the commission and we made it our first priority. we have worked on this. in the last month, the commissioner has taken strong leads. all three of us have had discussions with the people from different organizations

involved in this. we want to have a resolution that benefits the officer and the public. i will turn this over and let the commissioners take the lead. the hours they have put in are unbelievable. they are really dedicated to this cause. >> thank you. we will have a brief overview on the work that the subcommittee has done and i will introduce a resolution and go over that pieces. >> we have witnesses who have come in from what it -- memphis, tenn., and have been very generous with their time. this is not the police doing better, the public three buttercup but a plan that

reduces injuries on both sides so there is less use of force so our police unser's go home safe at night to the. -- our police officers go home safe at night. we look at a variety of different programs across the country. i would like to think the chief for his leadership. we discovered that we are doing something better than los angeles. we hope to borrow some of their aspects in the future. the goal of all of this is to

have the press policing model and the country when officers encounter potentially violent situations. we never want to have to use force. that is the goal in all of this. there will be another meeting talking about whether or not when they have to use force, should they have other tools? tonight, the first focus is are we doing everything we can to harm them avoid the use of force. what is so impressive is that they have been successful in memphis and dramatically reducing injuries to officers and suspects and making shi'a the incidents -- and making shooting incidents almost unheard of. >> i would like to thank members

of the community for coming out tonight. i would like to thank our guests and those who work in the mental health area. i would like to thank my commissioners to have been on the subcommittee with me. i would like to think the commission for voting this as our number one priority. i would like to thank the chief for inviting our guests to san francisco. the chief has taken the time to learn about this issue. thank you. before i go into describing the resolution we are introducing, i am honored to be part of this effort.

this has given me at the opportunity to meet with many of the mental health stakeholders in this room who are dedicated to providing services for those who have mental health needs. i've also learned about the model for increasing collaboration between mental health stakeholders and the police department including mantis and los angeles. what i'm hoping is that the impact on mental illness among your family and friends that we prioritize and care about this issue. i attended a community meeting after a recent officer-involved shooting and i can say that there are no winners when that happens. there are a lot of emotions when these things happen. the community has a lot of questions.

us moving forward on this and coming up with better and effective solutions for dealing with these issues that impact san francisco more than any other city in california is very important work and i am glad we are here to discuss these issues. >> before we introduce the resolution, i want to add that a major partner has been the occ. one of the research attorneys went to memphis and watched a model and came back and reported back to the commission. >> i was going to say that i stole the blueprint from the occ. this is hard work of director

hicks that made this possible. i'd to not have the expertise in this. -- i do not have the expertise in this. >> i prefer to hear the presentations before the resolution. >> it does not take long for me to go over the pieces and i think it will help when you hear the presentation. >> you are not asking for a vote? >> no. i will go over it. four members of the audience, we should have copies available. this was largely influenced by the occ and i also received a lot of feedback.

we would like to thank you for the feedback and for other members of the committee for giving feedback. there has been quite a bit of negotiation and discussion. we will jump into this resolution. this adopts the memphis model. this is an important step forward in responding to the mental health crisis and also improved coordination with other city departments and to mental-health stakeholders. on page one, we are recommending it that the police department and develop a crisis intervention team which is a specialized police team that received advanced training and it is deployed as first responders or co responders with mental health professionals.

the members will perform their regular patrol duties if not responding to calls. that is one of the great things, it maximizes ltd. resources. the second pieces that asks at the chief of police to select a coordinator who will have the responsibilities of implementing and overseeing the coordinator. on page 2, you will get into the heart and soul of this model. that is the mental health working group. this is comprised of the coordinator, the stakeholders, and the department of public health is encouraged to join us. i've talked with at the mental health association.

many organizations are a interested in helping. seeing through this group that the training, the policy -- it is through this group that the training, the policy initiatives will be enacted. officers will receive a minimum of 40 hours' training on this. all officers will receive 16 hours regarding mental health crisis response. in addition, the officers will receive additional training every two years thereafter. advanced and field training will be given on this issue.

the mental health working group and sf pd will create a system wide assess the response team. you will learn more about this in our presentation. this model is borrowed from los angeles. they have an amazing program where they have a code response. the reason why they can't do this is that they have a large amount of resources. -- the reason why they can do this. they have been smart about tapping into state and federal funding to have people on call. we don't have that set of resources but there is the ability to. the chief will designate someone to work with the behavioral scientists committee to ensure that members of our department

received inappropriate mental health services and that will be a very important piece. i talked with steve johnson and he seemed quite happy with it. there are a number of reporting procedures outlined to the commission so that they can oversee this process. this is a large reform we are engaging in. this is hard work. there is a lot of commitment from the bottom up and dow.

>> we have with us the architects of the mint is model. -- the memphis model. we look at how they handled the mentally ill and then we look at the model in los angeles and we invited them back today to talk about their process. >> i would like to express our appreciation to this board and the leaders of this community

that has been interacting with us and the crisis intervention team in memphis. we are very appreciative of your time. we will start right into the presentation. the crisis intervention teams is referred to as cit. i am a retired major from the memphis police department. the last part of my career, which is 20 years, which was donated and directed towards the crisis intervention team. we helped to formalize this specialized approach. since my presence is reflected back to my career and law- enforcement, the program is not

a law enforcement program. this is a part of law enforcement but this is a community program. in powers the community to address the special needs that have already been discussed. this is about partnerships and they are very unique. this is about a mental-health provider partnership and advocacy. those partnerships are key to the existence of cit debt and for the day to day operations. one of the things that many of the officers will recognize is the sensitivity and patience. this is a picture of one of our offers interesting with a

juvenile. we had some reporters that came and did an extensive review of the model. there is much needed attention with regards to christ -- crisis intervention. one of the things is that the nurturing of the program needs to be in place. that has different levels. this is within the police department. a reference of the program such as myself, i would say coordinator. i was charged with my chief to make this happen. under his authority, i said, okay, this is a program that i will have to make work within our community and the relationships that will have to be made. those kinds of relationships brought this program to the

forefront of the community. other nurturing takes place within the concept of mental health. one of the remarkable things about memphis is the low-cost. that is a big concern. how much does this cost? memphis has been in existence since 1988 and we have had multiple training sessions. probably three a year. those transitions, we have not paid specifically to the training of the mental-health community. why did they do that? they do that because of the community and as part of the nurturing process of their giving towards the city and as -- and to our officers specifically. there is other nurturing that goes on. we mentioned to the efficacy. many times they have awards programs to honor them.

we want to make sure that they recognize and understand that their special and unique. we are proud of all of our officers but these officers have a role. they step into a community program. they take the ownership very seriously and they work to make it happen. this is the passion that makes cit work. it is the changing of the heart which sets the stage for others to follow. cit is a heart program. at this time, i would like to turn to my colleague. >> i would like to describe the the research for you. if sam would like to talk about some of the reasons why the officers get involved. not first of all, we have been not first of all, we have been lucky to be recognized by a