On a typical day, Rev. Dana Bainbridge remembers Winston — a beloved member of the City Sanctuary religious group — waving or calling her title when he noticed her.
He would sing, clap and typically play the tambourine, bringing a lot pleasure to others, Bainbridge instructed the San Jose Metropolis Council.
However final week, Winston had a tough psychological well being day, prompting the church to attempt to contact the Trusted Response Pressing Help Group (TRUST) — a workforce of well being professionals and help advocates for nonviolent psychiatric emergencies — after which, when unsuccessful, to name 911 for a welfare test.
“What we got was a daunting number of police cars, nine uniforms standing over Winston, cuffing him,” Bainbridge mentioned.
She thought again to classes her father taught her about choosing the proper device for the job when fixing issues — a lesson some San Jose residents can relate to, and why they’re imploring the town to broaden non-police options for crises — as a result of in any other case “you could do more damage if you use the wrong tool.”
For the previous yr, the town has explored choices for growing entry to various response and co-response applications, recognizing that police should not at all times the most suitable choice for the calls emergency personnel obtain.
San Jose confronted scrutiny for the way it responds to psychological well being incidents after an investigation by the Bay Space Information Group, KQED and the California Reporting Mission discovered that folks affected by psychological well being points have been concerned in almost three-quarters of the San Jose Police Division’s use-of-force incidents, together with 80% of killings, over a decade.
A city-commissioned evaluation of 911 calls discovered that 58.5% of studies have been flagged as psychological health-related with out the necessity for a police report. The identical examine additionally discovered that just about one-quarter of calls associated to homeless folks resulted in citations or arrests.
In the meantime, various response applications like TRUST groups have demonstrated outcomes, with a report from 2023 exhibiting that TRUST groups have been in a position to stabilize folks 72% of the time without having additional help.
With various response applications exhibiting the next degree of efficacy in peacefully resolving points, San Jose, for the primary time in its historical past, funded a devoted TRUST line this yr, pumping in $450,000 for the pilot program that would probably run till June 2026.
“The reality is, over time, we have come to rely on our police officers to respond to an ever-growing and diverse list of call types, so many different needs in the community,” San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan mentioned. “That has put officers under immense stress (or) often puts them in situations they are not necessarily well-equipped to handle. When it comes particularly to just thinking about the volume of calls we get related to mental health issues and homelessness, we’ve got to find ways to make sure we’re sending the right response team, and it’s not always — as we discussed in past years — an officer with a badge and a gun.”
In December, the brand new San Jose-dedicated TRUST workforce responded to 23 incidents, based on Tom Westphal, a deputy director of the Metropolis Supervisor’s Workplace of Administration, Coverage and Intergovernmental Relations.
However whereas San Jose has funded this system for this yr, elected officers are involved with the long-term sustainability of funding the service, which has historically fallen below the accountability of the county.
In a memo handed at Tuesday’s Metropolis Council assembly, Councilmembers Domingo Candelas, David Cohen and Peter Ortiz known as on the town to discover funding the TRUST line by tapping into funds the town obtained from a settlement with producers, distributors and retailers for his or her contributions to the opioid epidemic.
“I think it’s important to realize that we are exploring investments and alternatives to the traditional 911 response system,” Candelas mentioned. “When someone is experiencing a mental health crisis or struggling with opioid addiction, the response needs to be thoughtful, compassionate, and ultimately informed, and for the longest time, we’ve unfairly overburdened our understaffed police force with dealing with these typical interactions.”
The Metropolis Council has additionally requested for better outreach with members of the incapacity group, who’ve additionally known as for the town to pursue extra non-police options.
“We need more training,” incapacity advocate Michele Mashburn mentioned. “We need more awareness. We need more disability equity that follows in line with the work that has been done.”
San Jose additionally has to grapple with the issue of getting residents adequately linked to the companies regardless of including extra sources.
Whereas 911 dispatchers might probably divert calls, polling performed by the town discovered that 75% of residents queried have been unaware of the companies supplied by means of the 988 psychological well being hotline, which the town hopes to rectify.
Supporters mentioned the proper response might result in a totally completely different end result for these in misery.
Rev. Matthew McHale recalled the psychological well being response workforce dealing with an unhoused resident in extreme psychological well being misery “beautifully” after ushers on the First Unitarian Church of San Jose summoned them.
“If a police officer had been there, I’m not clear that it would have gone the same way because many people have negative associations with law enforcement,” McHale mentioned.
