Dear Tompkins County
Legislature and the Ithaca Common Council,
On behalf of NAMI Finger Lakes,
we write to urge that you approve the recommendations in the draft Re-imagining
Public Safety Plan related to the implementation of an alternative to law
enforcement for crisis intervention, and to training in de-escalation and
mental health, the second and fifth recommendations respectively in the draft
plan.
Having contacted you last fall
to urge that these issues be considered in the planning effort, members of NAMI
Finger Lakes are grateful that they have been taken seriously and are supported
in the recommendations. We call on you to ensure that they are included in the
final plan.
These issues are extremely
important to NAMI Finger Lakes because we, as family members of people living
with mental health conditions, often make the calls to 911 in a crisis and we
experience how a police response, even when completely well intentioned, can
produce harmful results. The fact that the responding officer wears a police
uniform and carries a gun frequently triggers fearful and defensive reactions,
which further escalate the crisis rather than defuse it.
Additionally we cannot expect
police to do what a mental health or medical professional can do; it is not
what officers are hired and trained for. And the absence of mental health
expertise can lead to a misunderstanding of the behavior of the individual in
crisis and to inappropriate responses to that behavior. The need or desire to
bring the intervention to a relatively quick conclusion sometimes leads to
rapid physical restraint, which can be extremely traumatizing for the
individual in crisis and can lead not only to physical injuries but also to
criminal charges, which can then subject the individual to ongoing involvement
in the criminal justice system.
When these interventions take
place in our home, our family members and we ourselves are subjected not only
to the trauma of the response but also to the stigma of the public spectacle
amplified by one or more police cars with flashing lights. In far too many
cases, much needed mental health care is never accessed.
The National Alliance on Mental
Illness has been at the forefront of development and advocacy of CIT, Crisis
Intervention Training, an innovative, community-based approach to improving
outcomes in law enforcement response to crises. As your local affiliate, NAMI
Finger Lakes was instrumental in the creation of the Ithaca Wellness and
Recovery Court, a major advance in diverting individuals with mental health
conditions from the criminal justice system. And last fall our Executive
Director and planning team initiated an examination of alternatives to police
response to mental health crises during our monthly Family Forum events. This
process has included a presentation by a representative of the most well known
alternative response service in the US, Oregon-based CAHOOTS and will continue
later this month with a presentation by a representative of STAR, a program
more recently implemented in Denver, Colorado. To view this Family Forum series,
a link has been provided to the NAMI Finger Lakes YouTube Channel.
Executive Order 203 on Police
Reform and Reinvention addresses racial disparities in law enforcement
response. NAMI Finger Lakes recognizes that the intersection of race and mental
health cannot be ignored. Decriminalizing personal crises such as mental
illness, housing insecurity and other personal needs not met is an important
step toward securing positive outcomes for this community. This can be achieved
through compassionate, community based response to these crises when they arise
to restore dignity and respect for our fellow community members experiencing
these needs, rather than complicating their lives further or worse yet, ending
them.
Although this study is still in
process, our work thus far has convinced us that there are viable alternatives
to police response to mental health crises, and that these alternatives lead to
better outcomes for everyone – the person in crisis, their family, law
enforcement, and the community as a whole. Consequently we urge you to approve
Recommendation #2 in the draft plan, and we ask that NAMI Finger Lakes be
included as part of the implementation planning, to which we can bring both the
knowledge gained in our examination of existing alternatives and also our real
life expertise as advocates for our loved ones.
Our study has demonstrated that
even with a non-law enforcement alternative in place, there will continue to be
interactions between people with mental health conditions and law enforcement
personnel, albeit at a greatly reduced rate. For this reason we urge you to
ensure that Recommendation #5 of the draft be included in the final plan, so
that when police do encounter individuals with mental health conditions,
training has provided them the tools to manage the encounter safely,
effectively, and humanely.
We respectfully urge you to
support these measures which can have far-reaching positive effects for our
loved ones, our families and our communities, and we look forward to being part
of the implementation process.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Deborah Grantham
President
NAMI Finger Lakes