the memphis model. i will explain what that is, and i am happy to answer your questions. i also want to make sure that we think chief godown, the mental health stakeholders, and the department of public health, the mental health board, and the coalition on homelessness. i am sure i am leaving out a few amazing people that helped in this effort. in particular, and joyce hicks from the -- going into the model, the commission finance the about the last week, it is called the crisis intervention teams. it is an innovative first responder model of police-based police-based intervention with police and attkisson partnerships. developed by the memphis police department in 1988, the memphis model is recognized as the best breakfast by the u.s. department of justice and also by the u.s. department of health and human services. in addition to the partnership among law enforcement, mental health providers, and community advocates, the memphis model relies on specially trained cit officers, while continuing their d

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 associati

as i understand the memphis model, in memphis, tasers are not used. i'm wondering if you have any thoughts about that. >> thank you for highlighting that. it was the president decided to do that, and i appreciate that he did because it led to a healthier discussion. the commission does have an agenda item scheduled for next wednesday at 5:30 at city hall, room 400, regarding the taser discussion. i assume it will be a very lively discussion amongst everybody, and i think it is interesting that memphis does not have tasers. they specifically chose not to because they realized that the effectiveness rate was not high. they did qualify that it was based on their review a while ago because they started implementing them at the memphis small they while ago. instead, they had a different intermediate device they use, a rubber bullet gun, and they said they rarely actually pull the trigger. i think they are just pulling it out to scare folks. in general, their number one way of responding to a mental health crisis is 3 d escalation techniques that are a lot

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 underst

i would like to address some of the highlights from the trip to memphis. there are a few aspects of the resolution before you that i would like to highlight. we play a unique role because not only do we look at misconduct but we're able to make policy recommendations so we have this opportunity to meet with 20 members and hear their concerns as well as looking at this and do best practice research. in this role in the last decade, we have made a number of recommendations concerning the police response. some of them have involved training so that there is an increase escalation skills and tools and resources. the extended range impact weapon, another tool for officers, we have looked at that because mentally ill individuals is the last lethal weapon that is used for them. we're talking about ways that we can have a review this. most recently, we were invited to provide recommendations and to work with the department. we are looking at the mental health response because of those 15 cases, five of those involved the cases that were mentally ill. we appreciate

we have a very large call volume in memphis. these calls which involve individuals were thought to be at high risk and the need for additional help and support and are an additional crisis. we have transportation which has those who are brought for evaluation which runs at about 4500 a year. there is a need to transport people to emergency services less. the number that actually began to be brought in began to drop because of the information that they brought to this service. we can have less restrictive service which i thought was positive. this is what has happened to officer injuries. the light blue line was 84-87. if you look at what happens, it begins to dramatically decrease. you will find that the injury rate on all calls is that different from the calls on high-risk calls such as those involving a person with drug or alcohol abuse. we can see any dramatic decrease and this is very powerful. let's take a look at some of the other data. this is from a health and human services that we did. we had a group that was not inter

it is the same actual training that they do in memphis. the difference is only the the community decision 10 years ago was to train the entire police department, since we have such a high number of mentally ill in our city. the highest number of people taken to the hospital as a danger to themselves or others or gravely disabled, and police officers tend to have to respond to more situations where a person is also under the influence of substance abuse, has had a recent incidents of violence. if i just really think that the training has been very good and very effective in ways that we probably do not even know. i have -- you're just interest in reading over the last 10 years. i would have them right out situations that they had encountered with a person with mental illness. they are very different in the city -- than the situations we encounter in mental health. one of the most graphic was a man in a wheelchair in the middle of traffic, and he had a colostomy bag, and as the police tried to get near him to try to get him out of traffic, h

commissioner dejesus: memphis. >> one of the few exceptions. commissioner dejesus: do you know of a tasered that has a locking mechanism so it is only a five-second cycle? some of these deaths, people pull the trigger -- over 400 people have died by the use of tasers. >> i appreciate that you know this as well as you do. we have told the manufacturer to have a cut off at five seconds. they wrote back to was that they will cut them off at five seconds. we -- we specifically wrote to the manufacturer. i can show you the letter. i have it with me. commissioner dejesus: how do we know the weapons are not discharging more electricity than what the manufacturer recommends? is there a calibration method? how we know they're not being given a dose that is outside what the manufacturer calls for. >> the weapon is tested. there is a record of activation when it is used. commissioner, you raise good issues, but at the end of the day, if you're a police officer, would you rather have the option to use this rather than deadly force? commissioner dejesus: th

the memphis area and a lot of the others, i think that the issue becomes you do not want to lose the ability to get the right person at the right time in the situation departed miggy overtime in an ideal world, we would be able to find it officers to be able to do that. >> i think they need to go through the same cit training. they're going to come into contact with people who are mentally ill or very upset and angry, and in some instances, it is a matter that we could have slowed down. we could have taken our time, and i think this training would be applicable to that. yes, we still need the cit, but i am inclined to mandate that all of the officers go through that so we will get a better contact with the public. most of the people become into contact, there is an issue to be able to use verbals skills, that will save injuries as far as officers are concerned and others. >> korea -- commissioner hammer: the last thing that i want to echo, as somebody who spent time as a d.a., the system is broken, and it is costing us a lot, and with the mental-health illness, it is costing us a lot

we were curious about it ever since we heard from the memphis folks. the sl6 is their version of this weapon. >> there made by the same manufacturer. they contract out with other agencies. >> the reason they chose something like this was they found it to be more effective than tasers, which they found to be only 50% effective. has there been any comparison between the two come any studies done, comparing the safety and effectiveness? >> you're comparing apples to oranges. one is an electric current and one is an impact weapon. one is designed to disrupt the bodily functions. one is designed to create blunt trauma. >> thank you. if this passes, we will be talking with you quite a bit. thank you. commissioner dejesus: in the demonstration we saw, the person was advancing with a knife within 5 feet of the officer. are the officers trained to use a taser or baton in that situation? are they trained to use a lethal weapon? >> at this stage, we don't have tasers. current training, their options would have been -- a knife- wielding subject is a level of deadl

or does it mean a pin, as they do in memphis? i do not know. and then going on to the dgo's. there might be revisions, there might not, so there are just a few issues that i saw right off of the bout, so i am nervous about adopting something that may or may not ever get changed over time, yet could comebacker -- could come back to be a big issue, for a resolution that is as significant and important as this one, on an issue as significant and important as this one, i would hope that we would have more than one day to consider the text, the first presentation. i think it is important that we take action tonight to endorse the model, or that it be the policy of the department and that it be implemented, but i would hope that we would have time to work through with the chie'f's suggestions. i think it is an incredible work, but i think it can be improved upon. president mazzucco: commissioner kingsley? the commissioner wrote -- commissioner kingsley: taking into consideration what has been said, including from commissioners mazzucco and slaughter, could i suggest that a date tha

s >> in memphis we did not. we did not go back to the tasers. and we're meeting the needs with -- we actually have three loflse of less lethal equipment within the context of the impact weapon. they we have a chemical spray and we have a chemical foam. the chemical foam is 10% agent. i'm not sure of the percent of the agent we're using in the spray now. commissioner dejesus: i want to thank all of you again. i want to thank the commissioners who were out there. i want to thank you for coming and the community for coming. it was a wonderful presentation. i know it is way past your bedtime, but it was very en lightening. thanks a lot. president mazzucco: commissioner slaughter. slaught slaught thank you. -- commissioner slaughter: thank you. thank you for your comments. thank you to the moms. i have small achildren. i hear amoms speak, and i -- i hear moms speak and i start to cry. dr. due pobt -- dr. dupont you talked about the way the model has changed. i wonder if you could tell us how flex flexibility is important, if it is, to you in how it i

memphis reported about 50%. when there is a dangerous scenario, i do not see realistically how an officer is going to use a taser when it is a non-deadly-force scenario. i still need to be clear about it but we're going to research this. we need to explain what scenarios you can use these devices in. also, i am glad that the proposed amendments so far includes the two commissioners. if we do move forward, i would help put this in terms of communication if there is community involvement. i want to highlight this, because i know we spent many hours on this two weeks ago. this was unanimously adopted by the commission to weeks ago. the working group had our first meeting last friday at 2:00. we're having a second meeting next week. during our initial meeting, some any questions. -- so many questions. there are a lot of questions that can be ironed out. but it is going to take time. dr. dupont and major cochrane from memphis estimate it takes from six months to a year to roll up a cit program. i want to make sure th

guests from memphis. i started to befriend a person who is involved in the v.a. program, the criminal justice program connected with the v.a. they found some great programs. just going out, just me, last night, at a meeting that angela put together, we already had some of the agencies that should have been talking together years ago now working together. the v.a. and public defender's office sharing cases. no one can say it better than mr. "global connection" -- than mr. cochran. his understanding is interwoven within the framework of community partnerships. we hope that is coming to san francisco. fa you very much. -- thank you very much. commissioner chan: our next speaker. >> thank you. by way of transition, i'm here from the l.a. department of health. i'm here -- glad to hear about the s.m.a.r.t. teams. i want to build on what has been mentioned here. i think resources are a big issue. i'm very gratified, the mental health association of san francisco is grad identified this initiative has come forward in a way that it -- i'm gratified this initiative has com

i'm very much in support of the men this model -- the memphis model. i do think you guys have some 40 questions about how it is going to work here. i was also gratified to hear the person from the dispatch office because i think that really gets to the key question and probably in particular for san francisco because it does not have an integrated 911 system. as an addition to that dialogue, i think it is important to note that in a lot of places, if you are a mental health client, and it is after the working hours of the clinic, and you call the clinic, or alternatively, if you have a therapist and you call your therapist's office, and they are closed, the message you are going to get is, "if this is an emergency, call 911." i personally feel like that is not the best message. if it were my preference, the number to call would be a psychiatrically train mental health worker, somebody who can listen and then give referrals to the right resources. i do not really believe that it is in a perfect world the job of either 911 dispatchers nor the police to r

the vote was unanimous that san francisco will begin training officers like they do in memphis, tennessee. >> voting to you -- to adopt the model. >> they considered new ways to train officers in dealing with mentally disturbed citizens. 900 offices have been in a training program. training that stopped last summer because of budget cuts. now the police commission embraced a highly regarded new model presented by researchers from the university of memphis. >> i urge you to put the resources into this program because it needs to succeed. it will make a huge difference for our community. >> the memphis model allows select officers to volunteer for elite crisis intervention training. the trained teams would then work their regular assignments, but could quickly be dispatched to a mental health call. it would network with local mental health experts. the acting chief wants to take it a step further. >> the reality is it should be more -- morphed into standardized training for any officer to have contact with anybody. >> it comes on the heels of a january 5th incident in which san francisco po