In the aftermath of the media scrutiny surrounding the verdict in the Kelly Thomas case the media and bloggers missed an opportunity to ask the question of not just how could this have been prevented, but what kind of police department should we have? John Barnett, the attorney for accused policeman Manuel Ramos, clearly won the argument, as the jury believed him when he stated both during closing statements and to the press “These peace officers were doing their jobs…they did what they were trained to do.”
This article will not be about police accountability and even if the Peace Officer’s Bill of Rights (POBR) had been reformed prior to this incident it would not have prevented Kelly’s death. But it is this statement by Barnett that is illuminating, as it was the use-of-force training, as well as the stigmas that surround mental illness, that contributed to his death. Thus I would argue that it’s time to revise the training that led not only to Kelly’s death, but to other deaths across the country when cops and the mentally ill collide. Mike Riggs in this article concludes that American’s should “Think Twice Before Asking The Police to Deal with the Mentally Ill.”
Yet I know that the law enforcement profession, given the right tools and the right training, can be an agent of good that those most at risk can turn to for help. Implementing and designing these best practices is not a failure of resources but simply of politics.
Like all law enforcement agencies, Fullerton PD is governed and accredited through the California Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST). It is POST that has both the legislative mandate and the funding to design and implement training based on best practices for all of California, but it has not done so in a consistent fashion. Currently POST standards require continuing education, but does not designate the number of hours, the frequency or even necessitate that training be documented relative to street level encounters with the mentally ill.
As a result of Kelly’s death the Orange County Grand Jury issued a report last year titled: “A Look at Tools to Assist Law Enforcement in Achieving Positive Outcomes with the Homeless Mentally Ill.” The report asked a series of questions and mandated responses from all law enforcement agencies to a series of findings and their application to individual communities. What the Grand Jury noted was that training after the Academy was woefully inadequate, although many agencies disagreed with that statement.
“Each city agency and the Sheriff’s Department should supplement POST training to include an in-depth study of dealing with those on the street who are emotionally disturbed and/or mentally ill – both in the context of day to day policing and in the context of use of force. Although many agencies have procedures for dealing with the mentally ill, few actually conduct regular training related to these policies. Even less train on tactics and use of force in the context of the emotionally disturbed and the mentally ill.”
Many community members, elected officials and mental health advocates have long contended that if Laura’s Law had been implemented in this County, it would have prevented Kelly’s death. Yet I wonder if they realize that Kelly did not meet many of criteria in order to qualify for treatment under that law, which includes that in addition to his severe mental illness, that he must have been hospitalized or jailed twice in 36 months for his mental illness, or have been violent at least once in the last 2 years.
In my career I saw the pendulum swing wildly as our elected officials and our law enforcement leaders used tragedies which I can only call the “crime de jour” to propose policy and law without critically analyzing the effect on our communities. Some laws were necessary, such as domestic violence laws, but others such as three-strikes have created an over-burdened criminal justice system that we are still attempting to fix today. My fear is that Laura’s Law when implemented on the street without adequate training for law enforcement could possibly increase the likelihood of a use-of-force incident, as no one is asking who will be responsible for getting the mentally ill into the system. This task will fall to law enforcement as the police are the gate keepers to both the mental health system and the criminal justice system.
But there ARE successful law enforcement models that use a crisis intervention training (CIT) approach to resolve many of the public safety issues surrounding the mentally ill and homeless. The most noteworthy agency is the Memphis, Tennessee Police Department that implemented the “Memphis Model” based on:
- Specially trained officers to respond immediately to crisis calls;
- Ongoing training of CIT officers at no expense to the City (of Memphis) ;
- Establishments of partnerships of police, National Alliance on Mental Illness/Memphis, mental health providers, and mental health consumers.
The Memphis Model has been in existence since 1988 and was born on the heels of an officer-involved shooting and death of a mentally ill individual. This incident forced Memphis PD to re-think how they interact with the mentally ill. But the difference is that they recognized that the police must adjust beyond “traditional police responses to a more humane treatment of individuals with mental illness.” It was this cultural shift that emphasizes service and not stigma that has won awards, as well as the hearts and minds of the mental health community, the mentally ill and their families.
But it wasn’t just the cultural shift but the results of the program that warranted the kudos. Memphis PD’s implementation of the program resulted in overall officer injury data showing a decrease by seven-fold since the program’s inception, while University of Tennessee studies have reflected that the CIT program has resulted in a “decrease in arrests rates for the mentally ill, an impressive rate of diversion into the health care system, and a resulting low rate of mental illness in our jails.” So why are the Orange County Supervisors not demanding that this type of training also be included when discussing the costs associated with the implementation of Laura’s Law?
Laura’s Law frankly is not a primary response to the many issues that surround initial police contacts on the streets. It is just another tool in the continuum of treatment that will be available for the severely mentally ill that are a danger to themselves or others. But the advocacy of Laura’s Law as something that would have prevented Kelly Thomas’s death has no basis. What could have saved his life would have been a county-wide adoption of a successful law enforcement program that has saved lives and enhanced public safety prior to his death.
One of the many hurdles in law enforcement is that we are reactive and not pro-active to events and incidents that result from bad policy, bad tactics and a culture that allows us to stigmatize the disenfranchised. It will then come as no surprise that on page 15 of the Grand Jury Report they note that the OC Health Care Agency has both funds and a comprehensive forty-hour crisis intervention training (CIT) course which was available prior to Kelly Thomas’s death. The push-back from some agencies was that the departments rejected this proposal as too difficult to implement “due to the projected cost of overtime necessary to backfill the work schedule for patrol officers attending the weeklong training.”
It is this penny-wise, pound-foolish response that always makes me cringe. I’m guessing that the one-million dollar settlement recently awarded to Kelly’s mother would have paid for the successful training of every police officer in Fullerton and then some. Clearly the Supervisors will be using proceeds from California’s scandal-ridden Prop 63 Mental Health Services Act also known as the “millionaire’s tax” to fund the implementation of Laura’s law in the County. Why can’t we use the same funds for this training as well?
Since 2004 over 10 billion has been raised and wasted on things such as bullying courses, yoga, horseback riding, and other innovation programs as well as administrative overhead. Orange County itself has received over 700 million since the start of the program. Given that the County wanted to spend 2.2 million on an interactive exhibit to educate visitors on mental illness this year, it’s no wonder the vitally necessary Centralized Assessment Team (CAT) and the Psychiatric Evaluation and Response Team (PERT) that includes law enforcement are woefully under-funded at 4 million.
My hope, despite my lack of faith in bureaucracies, is that as the County begins the roll-out of Laura’s Law, that it recognizes that diverting spending from MHSA innovation programs to implementing mandatory CIT training for every police officer is more in line with the intent of the law, which was to provide funding for the most severely mentally ill. Through county-wide CIT training in addition to enhancing both the CAT and PERT programs will help to shift the paradigm of law enforcement to one of service for those most at risk. With this shift, in addition to having a tool such as Laura’s Law (without forced medication, which offends our libertarian instincts), our communities may be able to achieve the many positive public health outcomes that other law enforcement agencies across the nation have achieved.
Thanks, Diane. As usual, you make a lot of sense.
New York City has its equivalent of Laura’s Law. I worked at the “public defenders” for those labeled as mentally ill — a small agency called Mental Hygiene Legal Services — for a month on an internship in the early ’00s. It is a well-intended law, but had a lot of problems in practice — both sweeping in people that didn’t belong for weeks or longer and discharging people for what seemed like arbitrary reasons. Kelly Thomas would have been medicated for a while, then back on the street without a likely cure. I’m not sure that that revolving door would help much.
Thanks Greg, it always boils down to the devil is in the details when we implement new programs. I really could do an article on the MHSA and what a boondoggle that has been. My issue with government and giving them taxes like this is it turns into a free for all for pet projects.
Diane
*Homelessness is the major point here. According to Santa Ana police….there are three distinct major sub-divisions for the homeless: (1) The Mentally Ill, disturbed or drug dependent…either on prescription or on the street drugs. (2) Circumstantial Homeless, due to Single Moms and Dads with Children, either living out of their cars or under bridges and some in the County Parks next to the Board of Supervisiors building – for example and finally (3) Homeless, addicted criminals….which prey on the other two groups – steal their money, get them hooked on crack, rape or otherwise physically abuse members of the other group.
Step (1) Identify members of all three groups. Step (2) Find shelter and food for the Circumstantial Homeless first. Step (3) Identify the Mentality Disabled and find them space in either suitable hospital or institutional care facilities. Step (4) Arrest those that are criminal and incarcerate them in Tent Facilities in the desert next to Fort Irwin.
We could also send them to Sheriff Joe Arpaio to guard our southern border in Arizona.
I just sit here with complete anger at ex cops like you. You use nothing but conclusory statements and have not a clue about a homeless child except lock him or her up.. Fill out the paper work and then blame someone else when death happens. The Domestic Violent Act has been so misused by cops that another person just died in OK! A man died from 5 cops holding him down and then did nothing but oh you think maybe we did nothing wrong?The supreme court ruled that you do not have to show ID . Period. You must give your name and that is only is some state.The wife was the allege law breaker but the cops went after him. Under personal knowledge and believe the taser is used daily and now we find out that many die from its unintended use.
Yes I did go to law school many moons ago however I realize back then there were too many lies for my taste in the court system and cops cases ( 1983 fed civil cases ) . English grammar was more important then the Bill of Rights, or Constitution and laws. Sorry law school is not a exercise in english but the law. Issue, rule, holding/application conclusion. IRAC Further Einstein and Hemingway were also horrible in Grammar. I would say I am in good company. I went back to where I came from. Construction . Two world records later , thank you math 101-??? and statistics where Yes I got my A’s in Under Grad and Grad School.
Do I know as a widow of a homeless mentally ill child? Yes! Odd though he became homeless at 19 ( now 21) because I got sick and now I live in a old folks home . But ex cops like you always say that the cops …” do no wrong…” His crime sleeping in a park, broke nothing ,took nothing and did nothing wrong but trying not to freeze to death. The record will show the temp was in the 20’s! So much for Private Necessity Defense?!
I came from the Vietnam time and when we shot we knew what was right or wrong. We did not blame others for our wrongs. We did not say oh some poll tells us this or that however that poll is only 1,000 people and is worded for it own views. My son now sits in jail and was put into isolation to the point that he lost it. His crime for isolation, he threw a chair at a wall and broke the pay phone. Yes anger management but now in local county jails he sits there and months later he lost it. He then was sent to a state mental hospital because the court felt that he could not help in his defense. 5th and 6th B of R’s While there they drug him to the point where I would get phone calls where he had no idea what was right or wrong. Last finally they release back to jail saying he is competent however no mental follow up or meds and to stand trial and now a year has gone by for a homeless charge of 30 days. So much for a speedy trial ! You wonder why he and I hate cops. FTR I was beaten up twice by cops and the last time was when my son was 12 years olds by three of them . My son was right there during questions by the cops because I had did nothing wrong but the cops jump me while he stood there watching his father get pounded and where the blood from my body was now pouring out from my bare feet ( had no shoes on) and from my face being drag over the asphalt .. Had to be taken to the hospital The court record will show while I was in my front door telling this allege car thieve to leave, the cops where at the bottom of the driveway. During this allege thief I held a firearm in my hands( Heller Case Supreme Court says I am allowed to hold a firearm in my home and there I was at my front door) The Castle Doctrine while a man tried to steal my truck and had two witness saying I never point the gun at anyone however I had not a clue when this man with a steel bar in his hands chase my son into the house while he was stealing my truck. Odd the police where right there at the bottom of the drive way and all in public record , Valley County , Id. The record will show that I was on a 1/2 million dollar cash bail for a 53 year old with a dying wife in our own home with two minor boys and did not even have a J walking ticket . the record will show while I was in jail for this BS crime of Assault when my wife was murdered around 5 weeks later and the county commissioners knew that my beating was the second time and had already filed intent to sue a local government for the beating the first time when my 15 1/2 son push me down during a argument. I go to jail for self defense. in my home . The record will show that my son was taller then me, out weigh me and was 15 1/2 years old I was on my back on the ground and he was about to hit again and I roll over and counter his move and slap him and told him never touch me again. My 15 1/2 son hit first . Sorry I will not be touch by anyone. Last; up until this time I did not even have a j walking ticket and I was 53 years old and a retired fireman. You wonder why our family hate cops and when they get near the youngest in jail he hits and so would i. I made a promise on that second beating I will never be touch again by a cop and if you get near me you better pull your gun and shoot me because I will never get beaten again. You have caged a 19 year old person for doing nothing wrong but no job, sleeping in a park , no help from the local or state government for a single white male. This kid has filled out three times for all the help and has never even heard back. The record will show the local DA and city attorney per the last investigation says Idaho has a major 5th and 6th Bill of Rights issue because they use plea bargains and refuse our Bill of Rights. Idaho Mountain Express article about the lack of proper representation in Idaho.
Who is doing these tasks , local government and who run the local government the town consel or town commissioners, the DA and chief of police and who controls all the funds from taxes , these leaders of the town. Poli si 101
Moral is simple: what started this whole deal ? some cop arresting a homeless 19 year and beat the F out him and yes I was on the phone with the hospital when I heard the screams from him while two cops beat the F out him while he was hand cuff. From that point forward he was beaten ( mentally physically, ) in jail to the point he has not clue about what is right or wrong ( so much for the 8th ) torture and the supreme court has ruled isolation even in county is a 8th violation when you have knowledge that the accused is in mental need and what is he looking for until God I hope takes his soul because either he will be locked up in a state hospital or jail because of his crime of homeless and then defends when the cops started to pound on him .
In conclusion having ex cops write these type of articles help none of the people because the cop are immune from prosecution . Kelly Thomas trial was won if you look at the jury instructions , CA 500 series the cops had justifiable homicide . or they had excusable homicide. . Until the law maker changes the laws the cops will always walk except for civil where these instruction can not be used. Wrongful death or fed 1983 sec. is the remedy line and why Kelly mom won without a court hearing. Remember this; there are three sides to every story , yours, mine, and the Truth. Hoov. Blaine County, ID court records, Valley County, ID court records, Mental State Hospital , Blackfoot , ID
*Parent who cares…..heartbreaking story. Just goes to prove that our electeds are not taking care of business….especially anything or anyone who doesn’t come up with hard cash for their next election campaign.
We need Amnesty International….right here in our town. We need a Public Safety regimen based upon Public Safety. All goes to prove two things: (1) Never get sick and (2) Never get involved in the Legal System.
Hi Parent That Cares,
I want you to know that I have written about this issue in the past and condemned the actions of both Fullerton PD and its officers. This article was to point out that that its the lack of training designed around serving the mentally ill and homeless. I don’t believe that Kelly would have been served by Laura’s law as I also don’t believe he deserved to die for not committing a crime. I can’t comment about what occurred to you in Idaho but also agree that we should not criminalize either the homeless or mentally ill.
A well-written and accurately reasoned article by Diane Goldstein. The use by some of “Laura’s Law” as a red herring in the Kelly Thomas matter has been self-serving and unfortunate. Diane’s thoughtful analysis revives and probes legitimate and unresolved policy issues which were deliberately avoided and remain largely unaddressed.
Bruce, it seems to me that when all the Chief Danny eyewash is rinsed out you still have the same, old and intransigent problem.
FPD Use of Force Expert Corporal X gets up on the witness stand in the Ramos/Cicinelli trial and tells a jury of idiots that he sees nothing in the video that is outside FPD policy. And yet Chief Danny has already fired Cicinelli, Ramos and Wolfe. We can’t know what for but it sure wasn’t for having halitosis!
These two things are utterly contradictory. The cops can’t be fired and also have been within FPD policy. You folks in Fullerton are still being lied to; eventually the Fullerton taxpayers are going to have to pick up a huge tab.
Your law enforcement community in Orange County, CA has enough free time on their hands to form a multi-agency task force to criminally harass one person as the person travels throughout the County. These cowards (if they really were afraid of a skinny mentally ill homeless man) could have waited for half the Fullerton PD to arrive before the take down.
I’m sorry – this isn’t a policy/procedure/training problem. This is a getting away with murder problem.
I’m very frustrated with this article. It is very well-researched and you make so many great points, but you HAD to discredit Laura’s law which makes your entire article a moot point.
Did you ever consider that maybe, just maybe that if in one of Kelly’s prior run-ins with the police that he would have qualified for treatment under Laura’s Law and he would have gotten off the streets and this incident that led to his death would have never happened in the first place? Also, Ron Thomas supports Laura’s Law and he knows more about his son’s mental health history than you do.
Hmm… actually it was MY article a month earlier that “discredited” or criticized Laura’s Law http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2014/02/is-plunging-ahead-with-lauras-law-the-appropriate-response-to-the-kelly-thomas-verdict/. Your disagreement is with me, and I may have been wrong.
This is a follow-up article by Diane Goldstein, and it seems to me that she supports the Law, MINUS some of its more troubling aspects (forced medication) and also ONLY IN TANDEM with the sort of training she describes.
I still find it incredibly offensive that we would blame what happened to Kelly more on him and the fact that he wasn’t forcibly treated, than on the men who killed him. Or that we would even sound like that’s what we’re doing.
My issue in this article is the fact the author brings up Laura’s Law and took it too far.
First of all, the law has nothing to do with the police. They have no part in deciding what kind of treatment the mental ill detainee should have. The only power of authority they have in California is a 5150 involuntary hold. And one of the rights that patients have is that they can refuse medication.
Secondly, the author supports Laura’s Law without forced medication is an issue because the whole point of Laura’s Law is to provide psychiatric treatment. Psychiatry deals with medication. A schizophrenic must be treated through antipsychotic medication.
The author never made that important distinction that you just made… That the blame became political as if “oh there was nothing we could do about it at the time because of the scope of the law, so we did no wrong.” It is a major detractor from the REAL issue which is that the City won’t react to their police’s misconduct. The blood is on their hands and they are blind to change.
Is Fullerton City Council still looking to float 40 year bonds to pay for the wrongful death settlement in the Kelly Thomas case? Or can we expect a civil trial?