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Home My WebLink AboutPD Specialized Assistance for Everyone (SAFE) Team 2023 Annual Report____________________________________________________________________________________ FOR CITY CLERK ONLY Council Meeting: March 4, 2024 Disposition: Accepted report Agenda Item No: 7.a Meeting Date: March 4, 2024 SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT Department: Police Department Prepared by: Todd Berringer, Lieutenant City Manager Approval: ______________ TOPIC: SPECIALIZED ASSISTANCE FOR EVERYONE (SAFE) TEAM 2023 ANNUAL REPORT SUBJECT: ACCEPT THE SPECIALIZED ASSISTANCE FOR EVERYONE (SAFE) ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE 3-YEAR PILOT ALTERNATIVE RESPONSE TEAM PROGRAM RECOMMENDATION: Accept the Specialized Assistance for Everyone (SAFE) Team 2023 Annual Report. BACKGROUND: Over the past several years, there has been an emerging practice of replacing traditional law enforcement responders to 911 calls involving people in crisis with social workers, mental health counselors, or medical staff. The City Council directed staff to release a Request for Proposals (RFP) to implement an Alternative Response Team (ART) to meet the needs and support those in our community who need additional services. Alternative response teams can deal with a wide range of mental health-related crises, including conflict resolution, welfare checks, substance abuse, and potential suicide threats, and they rely on trauma-informed de-escalation and harm reduction techniques. On January 17, 2023, the City Council authorized the City Manager to negotiate and enter into a professional services agreement with Petaluma People Services Center (PPSC) for a 3-year pilot alternative response program, not to exceed $775,000 per year with an additional $100,000 in start-up costs in the first year. PPSC utilized their existing model in Sonoma County for an alternative response team called the Specialized Assistance for Everyone (SAFE) Team. To provide these services to the City, PPSC hired ten (10) Crisis Counselors and Emergency Medical Technicians, a part-time Navigator, a Supervisor, and a part-time Director. On March 27, 2023, the City of San Rafael SAFE Team responded to their first calls for service. The SAFE Team operates 12 hours per day (8 AM – 8 PM), seven (7) days per week, 365 days per year. The SAFE Team partners with other community-based organizations in San Rafael and the County, such as Ritter Center, Jonathan’s Place, Helen Vine, St. Vincent’s De Paul, and many others, to provide outreach, follow-up care, housing assistance, counseling, and other services. The public can access the SAFE Team through the dedicated non-emergency telephone number, 415-458- 7233(SAFE), or the San Rafael Police Department’s non-emergency telephone number, 415-485-3000. SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT / Page: 2 The SAFE Team is dispatched to the call for service through the San Rafael Police Department’s dispatch center. ANALYSIS: The SAFE Team has handled 2,693 calls for service since their inception on March 27, 2023. Refer to Attachment 1. The SAFE Team’s two most commonly requested uses are for “public assists” and “welfare checks.” A public assist is a call for service or “flag down” by a community member or reporting party indicating someone needs assistance. This is typically for an unhoused individual. The assistance can include connecting someone to services, providing food/water/clothing, harm reduction, assessing someone acting unusual, or for subjects blocking walkways or entrances. Public assists are the most common call for service; the second most common call is for welfare checks. Welfare checks are initiated by community members, social workers such as Adult Protective Services (APS) or Child Protective Services (CPS), hospital staff, family members, or other parties requesting the SAFE Team check up on a member in the San Rafael community. The reason for the welfare checks could be because the person has not heard from the community member for some time and they suffer from a medical, psychiatric, or physical condition, missed scheduled appointments, walked away from the hospital against medical advice following a crisis, trauma, or serious accident. A summary of call types is provided in the following table. This section has been left blank intentionally. Call Types # of Calls Year to Date (March 27, 2023 – January 31, 2024) Percentage Counseling Request 208 7% Death Notifications 1 >1% Public Assists 1,343 50% Suicidal Subjects 67 2% Welfare Checks 840 31% First Aid/Bandage Care 11 >1% Police/EMS Assist 217 8% Community Engagement/ Outreach 6 >1% TOTAL 2,693 100% Depending on the severity of the calls for service, whether weapons are believed to be present, or the severity of the medical complaint, officers or firefighters/paramedics may be dispatched as a co-response with the SAFE Team. Additionally, if an officer or firefighter/paramedic is initially dispatched, but the first SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT / Page: 3 responders determine the SAFE Team may be better suited to handle the call for service, the SAFE Team may be requested to respond. The SAFE Team has had many successful outcomes with connecting community members to psychiatric services, de-escalating crises, assisting the unhoused community members to secure housing at local shelters, and providing drug/alcohol addiction resources. The SAFE Team has assisted with medical aid, drug/alcohol counseling, mental health assessments, and diversions of patients from regional Emergency Departments. Furthermore, the SAFE Team has diverted our at-risk population from the justice system through jail diversions and early interventions. An example of when a subject would be diverted from the justice system could be from a trespass situation, simple possession or being under the influence of a controlled substance, or other low-level criminal offenses. If a law enforcement officer had been dispatched to the call for service, there is the likelihood that the subject would be arrested and booked into jail or issued a citation. These types of examples would be considered jail diversions. It is difficult to assess the diversion rate because an officer on scene does not always indicate the potential for a jail diversion. For example, officers may be present during an involuntary mental health commitment. Occasionally, some community members may not be located or will not be interested in the services offered by the SAFE Team. These events will generate a call for service, which will be tracked statistically; however, the SAFE Team may be unable to locate the individual (UTL), the person may be gone on arrival (GOA), or the person may refuse services or refuse to provide information. In these incidents, SAFE Team members will be unable to collect data on the individuals served. As depicted in Attachment 1 and 2, the absence of data will be reflected in the “Data Not Collected” section. While the SAFE Team strives to capture the types of calls accurately, demographics of those served, outcomes, diversions, and types of transports they conduct, there are limitations to the data collected. Some of these limitations occur because the client is unwilling to provide the necessary information, how the client interaction transpires, and variables in information gathering due to the complex nature of crisis intervention work. COMMUNITY OUTREACH: The annual SAFE Team report will be made available to the community through the City of San Rafael’s website and on Petaluma People Services website. Community based organizations, Novato Community Hospital, Marin Health Medical Center, County of Marin Probation Department, Crisis Stabilization Unit, and the Marin Health and Wellness Center, will receive a copy of the annual SAFE Team report. FISCAL IMPACT: There is no fiscal impact associated with accepting this report. In 2024, staff will be looking into state and federal grants, community partnerships, and other funding options for program sustainability. Staff will also evaluate the viability of expansion to 18-hour or 24-hour service. RECOMMENDED ACTION: Accept the Specialized Assistance for Everyone (SAFE) Team 2023 Annual Report. ATTACHMENTS: 1. San Rafael SAFE Team Report YTD Stats San Rafeal March - May June-August September - November December - January YTD TOTAL CALLS FOR SERVICE 581 859 782 471 2693 Call Types Counseling Requests 28 95 62 23 208 Death Notification 0 1 0 0 1 Public Assists 340 357 389 257 1343 Suicidal Subject 15 22 19 11 67 Welfare Checks 174 295 232 139 840 First Aid/Medical Assesment 1 8 1 1 11 Police/EMS 23 81 78 35 217 Initiated By Dispatch 474 736 721 442 2373 Flag Down 25 25 10 2 62 Self-initiated 79 96 39 25 239 Attached to Dispatch 3 2 12 2 19 Outcome/Disposition Advised 83 185 188 114 570 Assissted 261 209 183 113 766 Safety Contract/Safety Plan 0 9 7 6 22 Refused Services 43 58 39 32 172 Refused Transport 0 0 0 0 Transported 55 75 68 50 248 Canceled Enroute/On Arrival 20 25 30 16 91 PETALUMA PEOPLE SERVICES CENTER S.A.F.E. TEAM UTL/GOA 99 183 171 92 545 Code 4(Welfare Check)15 79 72 37 203 Transported by Police/EMS 5 33 24 11 73 Transported by Friend/Family 0 3 0 0 3 Housed 75 252 244 144 715 Unhoused 145 442 381 251 1219 Data Not Collected 63 153 157 75 448 Gender Female 239 372 306 177 1094 Male 285 442 430 276 1433 Transgender 0 5 11 0 16 Data Not Collected 57 44 35 18 154 Race/Ethnicity Asian-American 17 11 13 7 48 Black 60 68 77 40 245 Latino/Hispanic 81 92 100 49 322 Native American 1 1 1 0 3 White 289 533 453 300 1575 Data Not Collected 130 109 114 61 414 Multi Racial 3 45 24 12 84 Primary Language English 0 655 650 394 1699 Spanish 0 33 33 21 87 Tagalog 0 0 1 0 1 Vietnamese 0 0 0 1 1 Other 0 0 4 0 4 Youth 0-24 y.o 22 32 56 17 127 Adult 94 436 355 293 1178 Senior 22 58 116 98 294 Data Not Collected 155 333 255 113 856 Responders on Scene Police 45 67 63 41 216 Fire 30 37 38 24 129 EMT 1 1 0 1 3 MCRT 0 3 0 0 3 Cover Request Police 8 21 15 3 47 Fire/EMS 10 14 13 9 46 Diversions ED Diversion 30 43 24 8 105 Jail Diversion 30 55 25 8 118 Ambulance Diversion 13 64 38 17 132 Referred to Services 41 97 59 17 214 APS/CPS Report Filed 0 6 16 4 26 Transports St.Vincent 5 1 4 7 17 CSU 5 12 12 5 34 Transit Center 7 3 8 1 19 Resource Center 3 0 0 0 3 Kaiser 3 4 1 1 9 Ritter Center 6 9 7 2 24 Jonathan's Place 3 0 1 4 8 Residential 4 2 1 2 9 City Hall 1 0 0 0 1 Library 2 6 1 1 10 Marin Health & Wellness 2 4 0 2 8 Marin General Hospital 4 19 14 8 45 Novato Community Hospital 1 4 2 1 8 Community Center 1 0 0 0 1 PPSC 1 0 0 0 1 Hotel 1 2 4 4 11 Pharmacy 3 0 1 3 7 Church 1 0 0 0 1 Metro PCS 2 0 0 0 2 Sutter 0 3 0 0 3 Civic Center 0 1 1 2 4 PD 0 0 2 0 2 Rose Shelter 0 0 2 0 2 Salvation Army 0 0 0 0 0 DMV 0 0 1 0 1 Marin Medical Center 0 0 3 0 3 Gym 0 0 1 0 1 Laundromat 0 0 1 0 1 Jail 0 0 1 0 1 County Office 0 0 2 1 3 Warming Shelter 0 0 0 3 3 Post Office 0 0 0 1 1 Redwood Gospel 0 0 0 1 1 Pet Hospital 0 0 0 1 1