SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California would take a step toward having counselors rather than police respond to people experiencing mental health crises under a bill backed Monday by gun-violence prevention groups.
Callers who dial or text 9-8-8 would be connected with counselors and could be assisted by mobile crisis support teams staffed with mental health professionals.
Backers say it's a better option than calling 9-1-1, where police are often the first responders and advocates say the situation too often rapidly turns violent.
Those who still call the emergency line but report a mental health crisis would be transferred to 9-8-8. Dispatchers for both lines would then be able to decide if police, fire, or medical responders are needed.
"This bill can save lives that we are losing to suicide and shootings by police," said Krystal LoPilato, volunteer leader with California Moms Demand Action.
California's 9-8-8 bill is the state effort to create 988 hotlines by July 2022 under new rules from the Federal Communications Commission and Congress.
It would be funded through a surcharge on phone lines similar to 911. Counties would separately have to provide the crisis services and mobile crisis teams.
The proposal is named after Miles Hall, a 23-year-old man who was fatally shot by Walnut Creek police in 2019, according to Democratic Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan of Orinda.
Spokesmen for California police chiefs and sheriffs said their organizations have not taken positions on the proposal.
California State Association of Counties spokeswoman Sara Floor said her organization had not taken a position. The County Behavioral Health Directors Association of California did not immediately comment.
"We'll have an easy number you can call and the counties will send direct mental health service teams to serve the community that needs it, rather than law enforcement, who aren't trained or equipped to do that," said Bauer-Kahan.
Taun Hall, Miles' mother, said in an earlier statement that she draws comfort thinking that the measure "might help save other children and spare other families this anguish."
