On the front lines of mental crisis: Dealing with mentally ill a growing challenge for SFPD

This reporting examines San Francisco Police Department interactions with mentally ill people. The department receives dozens of calls for service related to mental health each day, making these encounters a major part of its workload. An incident in early 2017 in which an officer shot mentally ill San Francisco resident Sean Moore highlights the challenges of handling mental-crisis encounters as well as some of the department’s shortcomings.
A growing homeless population and a shortage of mental health services have contributed to a rise in serious mental-crisis incidents. Incidents where officers conclude a person is a danger to himself or others have increased nearly 50 percent since 2003. The police department’s approach to interacting with the mentally ill revolves around the Crisis Intervention Team model, and protocols for dispatching CIT-certified officers are still evolving.