BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON Public Safety
Senator John Vasconcellos, Chair A
1999-2000 Regular Session B
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AB 1718 (Hertzberg) 8
As Amended March 28, 2000
Hearing date: May 9, 2000
Penal Code
HS:mc
PEACE OFFICERS ADVANCED TRAINING-
INTERVENTION WITH DEVELOPMENTALLY DISABLED
AND MENTALLY ILL PERSONS
HISTORY
Source: Author
Prior Legislation: SB 2049 (Vasconcellos) - vetoed by Governor
in 1998
Support: Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training
(POST); American Federation of State, County, and
Municipal Employees; AFL-CIO; Association for Los Angeles
Deputy Sheriffs, Inc.; Association of Regional Center Agencies;
Autism Society of America; Greater Long Beach South Bay Chapter;
Autism Society of California; Autism Society of Los Angeles;
California Health Care Association; California Mental Health
Directors Association; California Peace Officers
Association; California Police Chiefs Association; California
Psychiatric Association; City and County of San Francisco;
Frank D. Lanterman Regional Center; Los Angeles County
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District Attorney; Los Angeles Police Protective League; NAMI
California
Opposition:None known
Assembly Floor Vote: Ayes 72 - Noes 0
KEY ISSUE
SHOULD THE COMMISSION ON PEACE OFFICERS STANDARDS AND TRAINING BE
REQUIRED TO ESTABLISH A CONTINUING EDUCATION COURSE RELATING TO LAW
ENFORCEMENT INTERVENTION WITH DEVELOPMENTALLY DISABLED AND MENTALLY
ILL PERSONS?
PURPOSE
The purpose of this bill is to require the establishment of a
continuing education training course on law enforcement
interaction with developmentally disabled and mentally ill
persons.
Existing law requires specified categories of law enforcement
officers to meet training standards pursuant to courses of
training certified by the Peace Officers Standards and Training
program, including a basic training course for law enforcement
officers containing an adequate instruction in the handling of
persons with developmental disabilities or mental illness.
(Penal Code
section 13519.2)
Existing law provides that POST develop courses of instruction
in such areas as tear gas, civil disobedience, elder abuse, high
technology crimes, sexual assault, child abuse and neglect,
first aid and CPR, domestic violence, developmental disability,
sudden infant death syndrome, missing persons, racial and
cultural diversity, hate crimes, high-speed pursuits, gang and
drug enforcement, sexual harassment, and investigative
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techniques. (Penal Code section 13514,
et seq.)
This bill requires that on or before June 30, 2001, the
Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training shall
establish and keep updated a continuing education
classroom-training course relating to law enforcement
intervention with developmentally disabled and mentally ill
persons. The training course is to be developed by the
commission in consultation with appropriate community, local,
and state organizations, and agencies that have expertise in the
area of mental illness and developmental disability, and with
appropriate consumer and family advocate groups.
This bill provides that the course shall consist of classroom
instruction; shall utilize role-playing and the development of
scenarios to simulate actual situations; and shall include, at a
minimum, core instruction in all of the following:
The cause and nature of mental illnesses and developmental
disabilities.
How to identify indicators of mental illness and
developmental disability and how to respond appropriately
in a variety of common situations.
Conflict resolution and de-escalation techniques for
potentially dangerous situations involving mentally ill and
developmentally disabled persons.
Appropriate language usage when interacting with mentally
ill and developmentally disabled persons.
Alternatives to lethal force when interacting with
potentially dangerous mentally ill and developmentally
disabled persons.
Community and state resources available to serve mentally
ill and developmentally disabled persons and how these
resources can be best utilized by law enforcement to
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benefit the mentally ill and developmentally disabled
community.
This bill requires the commission to submit a report to the
Legislature by July 1, 2002, that shall include all of the
following:
A description of the process by which the course was
established, including a list of the agencies and groups
that were consulted.
Information on the number of law enforcement agencies that
utilized and the number of officers that attended the
course or other courses certified by the commission
relating to mentally ill and developmentally disabled
persons from July 1, 2001, to July 1, 2002, inclusive.
Information on the number of law enforcement agencies that
utilized and the number of officers that attended courses
certified by the commission relating to mentally ill and
developmentally disabled persons from July 1, 2000, to July
1, 2001, inclusive.
This bill states that:
The Legislature encourages law enforcement agencies to
include the course created in this section or any other
course certified by the commission relating to mentally ill
and developmentally disabled persons as part of their
advanced officer training program.
It is the intent of the Legislature to reevaluate, on the
basis of its review of the report required by POST, the
extent to which law enforcement officers are receiving
adequate training in how to interact with the mentally ill
and developmentally disabled.
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COMMENTS
1. Need for This Bill
The author has indicated the following in background:
Under current law, law enforcement officers are required to
receive 6 hours of training in how to deal with persons
with mental illnesses and developmental disabilities during
basic training. There is no continuing education
requirement. This lack of significant training in such an
important area is clearly a problem. The mentally ill and
developmentally disabled are some of the most vulnerable
members of our society and they are often misunderstood and
mistreated.
Alarmingly, recent reports indicate that there have been a
disproportionately large number of police shootings of
mentally ill people and that the numbers of such incidents
are growing. Since 1994, the LAPD has shot and killed 25
people who were exhibiting signs of mental illness. During
that same period, the Los Angeles Sheriff's office has
reported that mentally ill people accounted for 12 percent
of all shootings, 28 percent this last year. They also
estimate that about 25 percent of their law enforcement
contact involves persons who are psychologically disturbed.
In Los Angeles County, approximately 60 percent of the
homeless are assessed as being mentally ill and there is
evidence that these estimates apply nationwide. A survey
conducted by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in
Sacramento found that 66 percent of families with a
mentally ill family member had contact with the criminal
justice system at least once relating to their ill family
member. There are also large numbers of people with
developmental disabilities, such as mental retardation,
cerebral palsy and autism, who are also often not treated
properly by law enforcement because officers lack an
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adequate understanding of the nature of their disabilities.
Continuing education classroom training would better enable
law enforcement officers to recognize and then
appropriately respond to behavioral indicators and diffuse
confrontational situations involving these vulnerable
populations. Six hours in basic training is not enough for
officers to have considering the importance of the issue
and the sheer numbers of people with these conditions
officers encounter on a daily basis. Furthermore,
confrontations with the mentally ill and developmentally
disabled are some of the most sensitive and potentially
dangerous situations that law enforcement officers
encounter. For example, a person with cerebral palsy or
autism may exhibit overt signs of intoxication or
disorientation. If officers in the field are trained in
how to interact with these populations throughout their
careers, they will be better able to respond to the needs
of that community and handle delicate and potentially
dangerous situations. This measure will help better
prepare officers to more successfully deal with an unstable
and unpredictable population.
2. Should More Education be Available to Law Enforcement
Officers on Mental Illness and Developmental Disabilities?
Currently, law enforcement officers are required to receive 6
hours of POST approved training in how to deal with persons with
mental illnesses and developmental disabilities during their
basic course. There is no continuing education requirement.
POST does offer courses in this area, but not a classroom course
geared toward regular officers. There is a "train the trainer"
course, a 3-day program that trains certain officers how to deal
with the mentally ill. The course is designed so that officers
will return to their agencies and conduct in-house training.
This method of training is indirect, however, and is reportedly
not well attended because of its length. POST also has
developed a number of videos on how to deal with the mentally
ill, but it may be the case that officers do not get as much out
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of watching a video as they would from participating in a
classroom course that uses role-playing, as required by this
bill.
AB 1718 is designed to provide regular law enforcement officers
with an interactive classroom-training course that is not too
long. This is a method of training that is not currently
available in POST's continuing education curriculum.
SHOULD FURTHER EDUCATION ON MENTAL ILLNESS AND DEVELOPMENTAL
DISABILITIES BE AVAILABLE TO LAW ENFORCEMENT?
3. Police Use of Force Against Mentally Ill Persons
In November 1999, the Los Angeles Times reported that the "Los
Angeles Police Department has shot and killed a dozen mentally
ill or unstable people over the past six years in confrontations
involving questionable tactics and the use of deadly force." In
all these incidents, the Times concluded, "based on standards
agreed upon by nationally recognized authorities on policing and
mental illness, officers took actions that helped push
confrontations to fatal conclusions; in another encounter, an
autistic man was permanently paralyzed. Those incidents
translate into an average of one questionable shooting of people
in mental crisis every five months."
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In one case, the Times said, "police shot and killed a
disoriented and apparently suicidal man as he ambled
lethargically in a hospital parking lot, holding a knife that he
already had used to partially disembowel himself." In another,
"officers surrounded a mentally ill father of five, then killed
him after an electronic stun device failed to work properly.
Eight witnesses disputed the official police account that the
man was shot after he charged at officers."
These and similar incidents raise the question of whether law
enforcement officers are being trained properly to deal with the
mentally ill, or whether police tactics may in fact escalate
confrontations that might have been resolved without violence.
IS THERE AN UNMET NEED TO TRAIN OFFICERS HOW TO AVOID VIOLENCE
WHEN DEALING WITH THE MENTALLY ILL AND DEVELOPMENTALLY DISABLED?
4. Prior Legislation
SB 2049 (Vasconcellos) was vetoed by the Governor in September
1998. The bill required POST to provide a mandatory training
course on persons with developmental disabilities or mental
illness to law enforcement officers every four years. SB 2049
was opposed by POST, which argued it was already providing
sufficient training in this area; that the bill represented an
unfunded mandate on POST and local law enforcement; and that
another training mandate imposed on local law enforcement would
seriously hamper its flexibility in meeting local training needs
that may be of a higher priority.
POST, however, supports AB 1718. Unlike SB 2049, the current
bill does not require that the continuing education course it
proposes be part of POST's mandatory training. Instead, it only
requires that POST offer the course to law enforcement.
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