A wave of police shootings involving mentally disturbed suspects has prompted the city's Police Commission to look at new ways of training San Francisco's 2,200 officers.
At tonight's meeting, the commission will hear from local mental health experts, concerned citizens and representatives from the Memphis Police Department, whose plan for dealing with the mentally disturbed is known as one of the best in the nation.
"The hope is for us to engage in a wide discussion about how best to train and deploy people to deal with the mentally ill," said Commissioner Angela Chan.
It's a talk that both mental health leaders and police agree is needed.
In the past year or so, San Francisco police officers have killed at least three disturbed men and wounded another in incidents that mental health providers suggest could have been avoided or de-escalated if officers had better training.
In a city that has the highest rate of involuntary psychiatric commitments in the state, the problem is not going away, said Helynna Brooke, executive director of the San Francisco Mental Health Board.
"Police tend to respond to people who are in crisis, having their worst moments," she said.
In late December, for example, police killed Vinh Bui, 46, after responding to reports that he had stabbed a teenage girl. Bui, who had a history of mental illness, was shot after he reportedly lunged at officers with a knife or scalpel.
Days later, police shot and wounded 55-year-old Randal Dunklin as he sat in his wheelchair. Dunklin, who had reportedly been slashing the tires of cars outside a city mental health facility on Howard Street, was shot after he allegedly slashed an officer in the shoulder.
Officers need to know that their normal techniques aren't always effective with the mentally disturbed, Brooke said.
In 2001, San Francisco began an effort to provide every officer on the force with 40 hours of training on ways to deal with the mentally ill.
That training ended in June, at least partly for financial reasons. It was replaced this month by a cheaper, shorter class designed to train nearly three times as many officers in the course of a year.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/02/08/BANA1HKJC5.DTL#ixzz1Dy8HMDQ8
