Sacramento County deputies no longer responding to mental health emergencies without crime component

By Lee Anne Denyer

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    SACRAMENTO, California (KCRA) — The Sacramento County Sheriff announced Tuesday his deputies will no longer respond to mental health calls where a crime is not being committed.

The shift in policy comes, Sheriff Jim Cooper said, after a 2024 ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In it, the court found a Las Vegas police officer liable for the death of a man in mental distress after force was used while the man was not the suspect of a crime.

“Being mentally ill is not a crime and we can’t be the answer,” Cooper said in a news conference Tuesday morning. “Law enforcement officers are not trained mental health professionals. We’re not psychiatrists and psychologists. We don’t deal with it. We’ve had minimal training at de-escalation.”

The change, however, is prompting serious concern from the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District, a spokesperson confirmed.

“Any call that has a potential for one of our folks to be hurt, we call for law enforcement,” said Parker Wilbourn of Sac Metro Fire. “We have to have a safe scene before we can enter.”

Wilbourn said it is commonplace for firefighters to call for law enforcement’s assistance to ensure the scene is safe and secure enough for them to do their jobs. Calls, he said, are regularly made for that kind of support.

“It’s only a matter of time before one of our members is either seriously hurt or gravely injured as a result of this decision,” Wilburn said of the policy change.

Instead of dispatching, the sheriff’s office explained, it will now directly connect mental health calls without a crime component to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline run by the county.

In Sacramento, that line is run by Well Space Health. A spokesperson for the county released the statement below in response:

“Sacramento County Behavioral Health Services remains committed to prioritizing the health and safety of both our staff and the community. We are working closely with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department and WellSpace Health on this updated policy and will continue to adjust our procedures as needed to ensure the uninterrupted delivery of 988 services while maintaining a safe environment for our team.

We value the Sheriff’s Department’s support and look forward to continued collaboration when necessary. We also want to remind the community that 988, the national suicide hotline, run locally by WellSpace Health and is available 24/7. WellSpace Health in partnership with Sacramento County also provides mental health crisis support and substance use support. If you or someone you know needs help, please call 988—support is just a call away.”

Answers about 988 staffing and what would prompt an in-person response to someone in distress from a mental health clinician were not immediately available. There are 11 such practitioners currently in the county, according to Cooper.

“Criminal mental health calls will be treated as a major event,” Cooper said. “We will have the right not to respond from the fire departments for stand-by calls in which a criminal element is absent.”

In the news conference, Cooper said he would take criticism for what he believes is the right next step to combating the mental health crisis in this community.

“We wear the badge, we carry the gun, we deal with crime, not mental health crises,” he said.

Cooper said, in order to meet these needs, the county must prioritize funding for more sufficient mental health resources outside of law enforcement.

Cooper said the Scott v. Smith ruling has “tied our hands.”

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