crisis intervention so that we are able to taylor the training to the issues and the concerns that we have and we look forward to discussing these issues you in the upcoming months. >> thank you very much. >> good evening commissioners and chief. it was a pleasure and a privilege to be part of this delegation to memphis. it is very interesting to see what they do with the c.i.t. training. they were present at the creation. it was there advocacy that got the c.i.t. training changed and improved in 1988.

they provide community support in that they honored the officers. they have an award ceremony for the c.i.t. officer of the year and do that annually. they also invite the c.i.t. officers to attend the monthly meetings and recognize them there, so they really build a bond with the police force, and i think that is very important. and it is perhaps missing in san francisco. i also have to say that i agree with captain goldberg that a lot of the work has already begun. we have a very diverse and rather large working group. it includes mental health professionals, criminal justice people and stakeholders. and we are all in the same room

and working towards the same goal and i have never seen that happen in 14 years. already i think there is a plan to rationalize a system that is quite fragmentary and dysfunctional. >> thank you very much. thanks for coming with us on the trip. it was quite an adventure. >> good evening and welcome. i am a registered nurse and a program director of the progress foundation. we are a community based emergency center started in response to the overwhelming volume of clients being taken to san francisco general. i will say memphis was

interesting and i am excited about this project. >> police officers, i worked eight years at general psyche emergency and i am very aware that loument are frequently the first responders to many of our clients. i think my colleague eric and i are really looking to make sure that the health department and that the all aspects of this system are fully inform body what we are doing and we are go to start being a little more collaborative. and working together to be able to work within our own system so as c.i.t. grows and becomes a vital force within the city we will have the resources and the come to be able to work

with them. >> i am the medical director for the psychiatric emergency services at san francisco general. a duel role of treating the patients in san francisco. we treat a lot of them. about 7,000 per year. we do need a collaborative effort with how to deal with the citizens. i think the police officers have done a great job educating their officers in the past. i think this is go to give us a unique opportunity to start something that is already good and make it even better. and look at the way memphis is doing things and pattern something unique for san

francisco. our mental health system is extremely complicated to maneuver for the police officers and for consumers. hopefully this will be the beginning of making it a bit easier for both parties involved so that we can take this and get the ball rolling in the right direction. i think it is definitely going to be a good thing. >> thank you. thank you for coming with us to memphis also. just talk a second about the flow chart. i think that it is important that the working group it will be a big task. >> this will give you a representation. >> when we were in memphis, this is why police and consumers have such trouble. >> one of the most frequently asked questions for police officers is where can people go, particularly on a 24/7 basis. so we were told in memphis that it is a very good idea to do a

diagram of the services. this is what it looks like in san francisco. and as you can see there are key pieces. my director said it looks a lot like the things they give you at denny's for your kids to write on. i am making light of this. the truth is that we are rich in resources, we really are in san francisco. we need them. for many of the people represented here, and this is not just mental health. programs for clients who have a combination of problems. we have a city with a lot of clients who are not just mentally but have substance abuse issues and are also homeless. we have a trifecta of things we are addressing here. where do they go. we are planning as part of this

process is that for every one of the people represented here that there will be a representative within that agency, that group, that particular subgroup to kind of help them because frankly everybody on this page is feeling just as pressured and overwhelmed and hopeless as times as i think the officers do in the face of the demand. the beauty is that we are trying to do it in a way that is completely unfunded at the moment. all of the people on the committees are volunteering their time and effort. we know it is time to do something differently. >> thank you. >> that will be interesting for us to see. thank you very much. in memphis, the first day we sat down and met with them they said in every city that tries to start c.i.t., try to do a diagram or flow chart of your

resources and sources. you want to make it as easy as possible for them to do the referrals. we looked at each other and writing a flow chart. in five minutes she had this complicated flow chart. it is a good start to coordinate these services. i wanted to speak for a minute about my experience on the ride along and if anyone else wanted to share feel free to. you will hear from every member of the c.i.t. working group throughout the year. i want to make sure that we thank everybody for being here tonight. i went a week or two ago. i was assigned with officer c.j. woods. it was one officer per member of our delegation. he blew me away because when we were patrolling a neighborhood in south memphis, the poorest neighborhood in memphis, i

believe. it is 100% african american with one white resident and one latino residence. significant homelessness and drug and gang issues. everybody from a 5-year-old to a 60-year-old knew this officer. waved hello to her. i asked her how does every person know you. i said i have been patrolling this neighborhood for 14 years. that amazed me how well they knew her. people she arrested before were come category up and saying hi to her. maybe half an hour after that we got a call because someone is threatening suicide. the person threatening suicide was a woman in her 40's and she was threatening it from the doctor's office.

my officer went and when she showed up on the scene with her c.i.t. button two other officers looked at her and said you are in charge. that coordination was great. they walked into the doctor's office. the woman was in one of the rooms for the patient and she was crying saying she would kill herself but she is afraid of bugs or worms eating her and she had nothing to live for. the mother and she said why did the doctor call the police. i hate the police. i am going to kill myself. i am go to kill someone else. she was very, very upset. the mother was upset at the same time. my mother, cool as a cucumber, came in, looked her in the eye and said looks like you are having a bad day. let's talk about it. got her a wet rag to clean up her tears, tried to get her

talking and sharing what is wrong with her. said can you write down. the reason why is she wanted her to move away from a crying position to sitting up and writing and being more coherent. she said my mother. is your mother the problem. no my mother -- i love my mother. your mother is a reason to live. started talking and engining in the discussion. that sent a reason why you are upset. she said me. put a circle around it because she was suicidal at the moment. the officer said you are not the problem. i want to take you to get councilling to get services. don't take me to jail. the officer said look at my pen. i am not taking you to jail. i am going to take you to get some help. and after this exchange happened where she did all of these other skills i am not trained enough to explain that got this woman to calm down and

her mother to calm down. at the end of 10-15 minutes the woman walked with her out of the clinic to the back of her patrol car. no handcuffs and sat in the back of the car. the family thanked the officer for getting her services and said mother you, you have been threatening this for a week. i am kind of glad. we can coordinate the resources and address the concerns. took the woman to a center where they connected her with services and councilling.

responsibly to individuals who are in psychiatric crisis, and to be able to blend all of the resorgses -- all of the resources that we have together in a cohesive and coherent way is going to really make the work done by the community and the

department something we can be proud of. what i did see in memphis from the police officers who were involved in the crisis intervention team was the pride that they had in working on that team. gep, i will save my ride-along story which involved an individual who is not only alcoholic but also had a psychiatric crisis, and how the officer was able to deescalate -- de-escalate the situation, but again, for another day. commissioner chan: we did run this timeline by the chief. i want to thank the chief. he said last week he thought it was a good idea. >> thank you, commissioner chan.

it is quite an undertaking and an impressive group roster, and the coordination of that is really rather remarkable. a couple questions for you, and one for dr. woodard. is the sfpd trained officers going to wear the pin, too? will we have an identifying pin for our officers? commissioner chan: yes, that will be the idea. we will do our own spin on the pin. that's what i have heard other counties do. we have discussed, captain goldberg and myself, as to whether or not someone is previously cict trained how that would work. and the working thought on this, and it might change, is that we will ask the officers to go through special training. there is special de-escalation

training, but it would be a plus if they had already been through this training. second question. the story you told us in connection with your ride-along was rather riveting, and did you get information around repeaters, for example? this woman was taken to get therapy. you know, do the folks that are taken to resources and facilities, is there a follow-through over a long period of time that cuts down the trips that the police officers are making? or is it, you know, almost like an alcoholic with a d.u.i. where you just continually see repeat offenders and you are constantly, you know, dealing with it? >> and maybe we'll share more stories as we report back, because they are interesting

stories, and i want to be able to share them. we'll come back with those more detailed stories. it seems some other folks ride-alongs, that officers on down time that they might have, they actually check in on people that they know have mental health needs and there is a relationship that's developed. they will actually go to residences where they know they have residents that live thrfment have you been taking your medication? how are you doing? that type of thing. so there isn't that elevation to crisis as frequently. >> do they keep statistics around repeat persons and whether or not there is a follow-through with mental health over the long period for them to get better in memphis? did you get a sense for that a? >> that's a good question. i don't have a specific answer. i'm looking at sam ramera, because she knows all this inside and out, if she has an answer to this. >> i do know that dr. dupont and

major cochran collect data. some of the data they have is ongoing. there is a lower recidivism rate. officers that bring individuals to services when they look at those individuals months later, they are still involved in the services versus individuals brought to jail. commissioner: thank you. dr. woodard, the statistics are amazing, 7,000 or more people that you all see? >> that's correct. commissioner: is that folks that have drug issues but not necessarily a diagnosed disorder? how do those statistics break down? >> those numbers i quoted are

the total numbers. we have seen anywhere from 400 to 700 a month averaging out to 7,000 a year. that's all patients. that's not differentiating between someone with a primary substance abuse problem or a primary psychiatric problem. the breakdown would probably be about 80 to 85% have substance abuse -- co-morbid substance issues. commissioner: meaning they have both? >> meaning they have both. that's why having appropriate dispositions for people with bans substance abuse disorders like sobering centers, out-patient rehab where drug

abuse is critical. when those resources are cut, it ends up backing up the resources . >> and doctor, that includes alcoholism as well as illegal drugs? >> i'm referring to alcohol as well. >> so about 15% are nondrug abuse, that don't have a drug abuse. >> i would say, it's been about 11 years. about 10% to 15% probably have no substance abuse issues, but the majority do. p commissioner: thank you very much. commissioner hammer: i remember

when commissioner mazzucco and i went down, chan and i, and commissioner mazzucco's office, went down looking at the best model and within two months we're at this point, and that is really remarkable. this effort came about because of lots and lots of stances where folks were severely -- severely instances where folks were mentally ill or hurt. the fact we have gotten this far in two months is smog short of remarkable. i want to thank acommissioner chan for taking the lead on this. i want to thank chief godown. we were in his office. we were wowed by it. we asked chief godown to talk to them. he had the openness and smarts to say, let's get this going from that point on.

i want to thank you and commend you for that. it made a big difference, and it is make a big difference in san francisco. i want to thank the folks sitting here, who came here part of this working group. i met you all one night when oongla had you -- when angela had you corraled nay conference center. this couldn't be here if day after day you folks hadn't done the work you did. if you keep doing it, we'll have a better city in six months, 12 months, nine noes months. so as a san franciscoan, i want inform say thank you to all of you. >> i want to thank commissioner chan. i want to thank compligser hicks as well as the working group and chief goldberg and the department, because this is great. combhigser chan: i'm looking at this, and it was intense.

it was actually a lot more intense. is -- i slowed it down twice to people. if -- >> we -- if we get half of this accomplished, it will be amazing. commissioner marshall: i hear people all the time saying, why don't the police do this? why don't the police do that? they aren't trained for it. at this time -- i do this every day, so it is no big deal for me, but officers aren't trained for this. now they can actually have the

training to do what folks ask them to do all the time. you know, it's been unfair to me for them to be singled out and be to lamented for not doing something they haven't been trained to do. >> commissioner slaughter. commissioner slaughter: they are the ones on the frontlines bringing people in crisis in, and they will have the resources and they will know how to be most effective there. i did have a question for catherine goldberg. it seems to me, to be most effective, this is a partnership. it is not really law enforcement, it is the community getting involved. the working group is a tremendous list of people from

around the community. have you started hearing response within the department? is the word getting out about it? . my only concern is, if you are the only sfpd person on this list, i want it to be that and not what the health department is putting to the department. we believe as a commission this works best when it is a true partnership. >> that is true, commissioner. first of all, we're still formulating plans. as was said, people from the academy had people with grants working on that. there is participation growth. as the program emolves, we're growing. there's a draft ready to go. the command staff ready to come out.

as i told the committee, the officers generally sit back and wait. we'll get 25 volunteers. i'm confident about that. the next group will sit back and say, are they being supported? is it develop uble? or is this not something that i want to participate in for a variety of reasons? we're not offering at this point -- there is really no incentive other than the additional skill set they are going to get for being a c.i.t. officer. you know, there is the -- there has been no discussion about monetary compensation that -- that may come up. so it is very, very important as we rule this out and people see the value of it the success of the operation, the gratitude that those officers get, that there are those intangible benefits that the rest of the

officers are going to say, hey, that's something i might want to do. as commissioner chan said, the officer in memphis wanted to join because when that officer first came in, he saw a c.i.t. officer come out with a successful outcome in a situation. i think that's why we come to the police department, we come because we want to be of service. no one positive outcomes tono one like. positive outcomes to make changes. that's something -- success breeds squess. >> i appreciate that. everyone has worked too hard. i appreciate ayour initial comments that it has been a success. it is bringing people together. we have a crazy flow chart that is scary to look at, in giving officers the tools they need to work together. as i said, my concern -- my concern is making sure that it is a true partnership, and not between the department.

>> there has been tremendous support from the department. i think the support is only going to grow. as the program becomes more and more successful. i think the biggest challenge as we stand here today is to get that first one out, do it right. if we do it right, and provide the support and training -- you know, not just the police department, but from the c.i.t. community, the mental health professionals, people will be lined up to join. >> thank you. i want to thank commissioners hammer, chan for all their hard work on this effort. i have to tell you, when we talk about -- we talked about our priorities at our retreat. it was unanimous this was our first priority. the mental health issues that we witness daily on the streets. to hear there is progress, to see the hard work that's gone into it, and to have mental health proverples professionals here today with our officers and to hear thaey