San Francisco is launching a new Street Crisis Response Team that will begin answering non-violent 911 calls.
The initiative is part of an effort to change the way the city handles public safety. At least six teams will be deployed in phases across San Francisco, beginning in the Tenderloin - where mental health emergencies are on the rise.
Angelica Almeida with the San Francisco Department of Public Health.
She told KCBS Radio the goal is to divert people in crisis away from jail and emergency rooms and connect them to treatment and other services instead.
"Rather than deploying the police, which is a traditional response, the Street Crisis Response Team will be deployed instead for cases involving an adult in a community setting where there isn't current violence or a weapon," Almeida said.
San Francisco Fire Department Section Chief Simon Pang said each team includes a community paramedic, a behavioral health clinician and a behavioral health peer specialist.
"We feel that someone who is trained in mental health response and someone who has lived experience and can relate to the individual, we think that is a winning formula," Pang said.
The police department currently answers 17,000 non-violent calls a year.
"We will refer and connect people to appropriate resources and try to get people off the streets and out of the revolving door of ER use and involvement in the criminal justice system," Pang added.
The teams are expected to pick up those calls by the end of March 2021 when the program is fully operating 24/7.
