vice president marshall: let me say a couple more things and then i will pass it off. we have had officer-involved shootings. not involving those with mental illness, but sometimes people say, why not just shoot-out the tire. well, that makes it worse. people suggested things that could happen. here's what i hear you saying. let me use a model. that's important to me. school resource officers handle things differently because they are at a school site. if that is one of the things that you might interface differently is because they are at a school site.

they are trained not to necessarily arrest. they go and talk the kid down there. the last thing, they -- if that's the type of thing you are talking about, that's fine. that's the kind of clarity i need. i want to know what the officers are going to do in those situations. for me i think that's crucial. >> what you are talking about a school resource officer. just to let you know, there is a serious effort to put c.i.t. officers within that role of school resource officers. it goes hand-in-happened because many of our -- it goes hand-in-hand because many of our people have, youth, have mental health issues. but the special zation --

specialization you were talking about, when a call comes in, and the dispatcher is screening the call, and clearly the dispatcher indicates the call is about a person with mental illness, that person has a listing of available c.i.t. officers and will dispatch at least one particular c.i.t. officer so that scene event. other officers that are appropriately or necessary for that call event will also be dispatched. when the arrival of the officers, we'll say three or four, whatever the number that might require for that particular call event, because of the policy and because of the understanding, the c.i.t. officer is the lead officer. you heard about the c.i.t. referred to -- often referred to as a badge, like what's on my lapel, that little pin sometimes

represents competence of our people that have a mental illness, and clearly with confidence the family may be calling in. but the leadership, and the leadership within the frame work of clarity is very, very important at a crisis event. i cannot over-emphasize that if you are faced with a challenge examining circumstance or issues, you must have total clarity of the performance of that particular officer and how they interact with an individual that may not see that individual as a law enforcement officer but may, because of the severity -- or the huh hallucinations may see this individual as a threat against the individual. understanding the uniqueness of an individual in crisis will back off to allow a cooperation and not to engage.

but that's clearly within the training of the officer. i cannot give you absolutes. vice president marshall: you answered the best you can. i wanted to put this before the body my major concerns here. if i can get some help with that, i would appreciate that. president mazzucco: for sake of clarity, i know the answer to the question, and i know you don't want to answer this, but what has been the change in flubs in officer-involved shoot -- change in numbers in officer-involved shootings? >> it has been a dramatic decraste crease. we are not slure if it is 2 or 3 within the last 10 to 15 years. president mazzucco: all right. now it is time for public comment.

commissioner chan: thank you for answering our questions. [applause] president mazzucco: can we have people line up on that side of the room. we will limit public comment to two minutes. >> thank you. i'm coming from memphis, but memphis is a long way from san francisco. i would love to challenge our 1515 against this. i would love to. this c.i.t. issue, think about this, it won't work. we have 10 districts, three shifts a day. do the math. we would need a c.i.t. officer at 10 districts three shifts a day? how much does that cost?

i don't know. a couple million. no one wants to talk about the taser. we all dodge the taser. the last four incidents we had with san francisco police involving officer-led shootings with allegedly mentally ill had a case of e.u.'s, all four westbound alive. chief gas gone who -- gascon who was on with ron owens today, confirmed me. people listed these tasers with all the spin doctors. it is getting old. >> commissioners, the reason why my certified dog is here with me

is because of ptsd exasbation. and i'm 5150. i want to make sure he doesn't get shot. you see him, chief? and also we're saying do not days us. since taser has been mentioned today, all -- although it shouldn't have been. because it is commission and i understand the rationale separated the taser. i'm here to articulate my agency's position that education is the appropriate foundation on the allocation of the budget for s.f.p.d. for mental health. you have heard me say before calling the mortician to deliver p.d.'s is like calling s.f.p.d. to do an intervention.

i am not anti-cop, it is just being realistic. we go down to district five safety meeting expressed concern and doubt about the capacity of officer's conduct. there is an average ever 37 5150's per day. this should go to train officers and also to train all the dispatchers. calling my son a crazy man with a knife is not acceptible. thank you. >> good evening. my name is clay hathaway and i'm

a deputy public defender at san francisco public defender's office. i have been practicing criminal defense for 15 years and i've been a public defender for eight. i wanted to give the commission and hearing some real examples of what we as public defenders are dealing with all the time. because this is a huge fiscal impact. these are the kinds of cases that are not going away. we have mentally ill clients who have called the police or someone who has called the police on their behalf because of one reason, and that reason is they need help. subsequently, because at some critical moment -- and i'm glad commissioner marshall brought up, what could have been done differently? because often there is a critical moment where those officers who have had the 40

-hour training, not the thing in place right now, those officers made choices to escalate instead of deescalate. three examples briefly. a case i tried two years ago. a woman 57 years a-- old. she's living in an assisted living center. she's diagnosed merntly ill. her caseworker calls the police to get assistance. the police show up to her house and she is in her room. she is in her room. she doesn't want anyone to come in. they force entry and she grabs a knife. the police then leave the room and they don't wait for the less than legal, they don't wait for someone more qualified to negotiate that situation, but they choose to force entry again

and -- can i have one more minute? >> we have to take our two minutes. i apologize. >> i have two other examples that are incredibly per swacive. the common denominators are mentally ill persons who are -- they need help and consequently they didn't get it.

>> hello. my name is mike. one thing i didn't hear durring the presentations is any concern from the mental health patients? is anyone asking thm how they want to be treated? i can't tell you how many stories, there are probably two dozen that people have relayed to me of they were victimized, they happened to be a mental patient. the police show up, beat on them. they get put in an ambulance. quite often they are harmed in the ambulance, and they go to psyche emergency and they get harmed again. what i see is there are so many directions that trauma is introduced into these people's lives, that you can't expect them to not be mentally ill. way before the police get there, we need to did decide how we are going to reduce the trauma in the people's lives.

i also see the police focusing on things that -- you know, the crackdown on the muni. $2 tickets. we have a whole force of people. let's go out and get some violent criminals. i don't know. it is really hard to say what all the answers are. i wish i had read the suggestions. it sounds very intriguing. definitely, train the officers. i don't know. is this a perfect model? i don't know. hopefully it will lead us somewhere with the nuts and bolts with some good ideas that could de-escalate the situation. that's all i got for tonight. thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker? >> hi. i'm jane goldman. i've been a psychiatric nurse of san francisco general hospital

for the past 30 years. i believe that the police can learn to deal better with psychiatrically ill patients because in 1980, in the 80's we trained all the rookies in the sfpd. you guys aren't old enough to know this, but i am. we gave them classes, pro-bono from psyche emergency where i worked on how to deal with 6 c1 worked on how to deal with mental health patients who are out of control. and in answer to dr. marshall's questions, very briefly, there are de-escalation techniques that i believe the memphis police use, they just maybe can't articulate what you want to hear. i can give you a couple examples. most paranoid schizophrenic patients are off their meds and they are scared out of their minds. they are hearing voices. they think the police are coming

to get them. just as they do in psyche emergency. so instead of saying, ok put the knife down. what we in psyche emergency would do is hey, you look really upset. can i help? your mom called and said that you've been talking to yourself and busting up the room. what's going on? so instead of moving in when there is no imminent danger, psychiatric nurses move back. that is just one de-escalation technique. you show empathy. what we teach, and i'm head of the program now, is called s.m.a.r.t. training, which is ironic. safety management and response techniques. we teach deescalation techniques for patients who are having a psychotic episode. those are the techniques these guys are talking about, and they know what they are talking about. it works.

president mazzucco: could you say your full name again, please? >> jane goldman. president mazzucco: and you work where now? >> san francisco general hospital. and we used to give the same sort of training to the rookies in the early and mid 1908's. president mazzucco: i would like to reach out to you. thank you very much. >> thank you. [applause] >> how do you do commissioners and chief godown. i wanted to say i'm a disabled american and i'm also the chapter president and organizer for chapter 16 for the californians with disability rights. i wanted to remind all the commissioners and the chief that individuals who are being visited by police officers in their moments of crises are disabled americans. they do have rights.

they do require the kind of compassion and dignity anyone in crises has afforded to them. in speaking about this, this particular model that the officer and doctor brought sounds like one that has previously been here but that the network fell apart. one of the things they bring to the table is the interaction with agencies that support the mentally ill and provide services for the mentally ill. persons who are mentally ill have moments of high crises. those high crises are passing moments. for the most part, individuals find methods to cope, and only

when he have they have the crises do they have the interactions with the officers. so dr. marshall, i want to comment about something i heard on npr today which is the program about proposition 63 funds used for early interventions for mental illness with children and teaching cogtive behavioral techniques for individuals that started showing symptoms. on times -- oftentimes symptoms for individuals that will show up in the criminal justice system show up then. thank you very much. >> thank you very much. >> hello. my name is dale monavi.

i have had the opportunity to -- i am very much in favor of the memphis modl. san francisco claims to be the city that knows how and it must now find the courage to become the city that can learn from others. we must learn how to embrace change. what is important is compassion, communication, cooperation and coordination across the departments. that is critical to address the kinds of problems that are before us today. thank you very much. >> good evening, commissioner. my name is francis sheehan. i was made of tonight's meeting

from the san francisco office. i flew in from southern california to attend and be supportive of this program tonight. on approximately 11:00 a.m., august 7, 2008, my mentally disabled sister was shot a minimum of six times resulting in 14 bullet wounds by the sfpd. the last shot was execution-style to her head. she has survived. thank god. i have asked the san francisco police officers, responding to feinstein what their protocol has been. she needed help, not bullets. mental illness is a diagnosed brain disorder and those affected need to be treated with the same respect, dignity, and compassion as those with heart disease, alzheimer's, diabetes.

i read with interest the recently advertised police chief of san francisco. it stated in part "the city has been implementing an unprecedented series of studies that laid out a framework of fundamental changes for sfpd transforming it into the national mold he will for the 21st century urban policy. the new chief will have the conviction and courage to address problems and tough decisions while setting out what is in the best interests of the department and the community. based on the shooting incidents before my sister was shot many in this community and around the world are watching to see if this city will do what is in the best interest of their communities for which they serve. in closing, tolstoy stated, everybody thinks of changing

humanity and nobody thinks of changing ones self. i ask your support to adopt the memphis plan and i thank the team from memphis and all their supporters here tonight. thank you very much. [applause] president mazzucco: thank you very much. >> good evening. my name is jeremy miller. over the past come months i have addressed this board, and my words have been critical. i stand by them. however i do not come in such a critical mood to this meeting. i want to thank the commissioners, chief godown, and

especially the community and the gentleman from memphis for coming out and taking such a serious look at a very real crisis situation facing our community. i want to focus on a few points. the resolution at hant hand, crisis intervention training is a necessary component of addressing police interest action with -- interaction with people with mental health. however, there are a few things that really need to be looked at. one in particular, i notice there were sections of it emphasized what to do when interacting with a person that had a blated object and that seemed to leave a huge loophole

open. what if it is a blunted object, does that give officers an excuse to shoot at that point? what if it is a gun? so loopholes like this need to be looked seriously at. also, i want to say that i recommend that you check out the beautiful people out here that work with these communities every day. because these people have resources of their own and have special expertise and should be consulted. >> hi, my name is lydia. i'm a single mom living in the tenderloin. also as a consumer ever mental health -- of mental health services in san francisco, i can tell you these mental health crises are going to increase with the death of 1,000 cuts that has happened to mental health funding over the past few years, and i urge you to adopt

this resolution before you, and look more closely and adopt a model like memphis has. i don't believe it will solve all of the problems related to mental health crisis, but it will certainly be a good start. thank you. >> good evening. flm director for the coalition on mome homelessness. i want to read through the recommendations. a group of us got together shortly after the latest non-lethal shooting of randal duncan. the mental health board, ourselves, the education, conservation, and national association for the mentally ill of san francisco. and what we attempted to do was come with consensus

recommendations to you regarding how to address the response to people who were experiencing a psychiatric crises by the police department. we had basically three recommendations. we did not have a chance to look at the rezzluge at the meeting as a whole, but i think you will see the resolution experience is very much in line with what we are recommending. first we recommended the san francisco police department fully fund the 40-hour crisis intervention training with the training of all officers and dispatchers. however sfpd. i want to know that education, not incarceration depends on, as stated on the funding, that they would like part of that funding to go to a response. part of our conversation was around really the training alone was president going to be enough. that there had to be a look at dispatch with and who was responding to the call. so the second recommendation into the city of san francisco

through the police department, create a working group tasked with addressing the dispatch of mental health professionals respond jointly to crisis. this would probably -- possibly include exchanging dispatch breaux protocol and expanding the capacity of urgent care. and the third is that the san francisco police department investigate the shootings of michael lee, fit eafment wi, and randall douglas. and i have give you a copy of the recommendations. >> hi, my name is sonia mason.

i'm from oakland, california, and i have acknowledged a lot of hurt on the homeless here in san francisco. i think every person who might be homeless, i think don't think they should be shot at in wheelchairs. i think everybody should be treated like a human being. as a human. i can safely say if you looked like george bush's daughter or any of you panels' kids were in the same position, i think you would feel as i do. i am just speaking as a person and a humanist who respects everybody, and everybody should

be treated with respect. i recently interviewed some people who were homeless, and they were saying how, you know, everybody takes away from them. they have no homes to go to. they have no place to live in. that is hard. it gets hard on people like that. and people who are disabled which enables a lot of people to get disabled, for the most part. so i'm saying as a humanist, especially for african-american history month and the honor of dr. martin luther king, i think everybody should be treated equal. even the people with mental disabilities, they should be treated fair. you wouldn't want that to happen to your kids. let's forget about white supremacy and let's start over. thank you.