Crisis response teams to respond to non-criminal calls in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – Mayor London Breed on Tuesday announced the creation of a pilot program that will provide a team of non-law enforcement to respond to behavioral health emergencies in San Francisco.

Each Street Crisis Response Team – a collaboration between the San Francisco Department of Public Health and the San Francisco Fire Department – will include a community paramedic from the San Francisco Fire Department, a behavioral health clinician, and a behavioral health peer from the Department of Public Health.

The teams will be dispatched to address calls for service by both 911 and 311 call centers.

Additionally, individuals can be connected to additional services and would be supported by DPH to use these services.

The team would be responsible for responding to some calls the San Francisco Police Department would otherwise respond, including suicide or self-harm calls, calls for assistance to people who may be disoriented, or those who may be intoxicated or in a state of psychosis.

In June, Mayor Breed announced that the city was in the process of creating a system to divert non-violent calls from the Police Department to other first responders as part of a police reform plan.

This pilot program is part of the first phase of implementation of Mental Health SF, the city’s plan to improve the behavioral health response to the homeless.