Parents Helping Parents, Inc.
Sobrato Center for Nonprofits – San Jose ~
Telephone ~ Fax
www.php.com ~ A 501(c)3 nonprofit agency
February 3, 2025
San Jose City Council
c/o Office of the City Clerk
200 E. Santa Clara St.
Tower 14th Floor
San José, CA 95113
Re: Item 3.3: Options for Expanding Alternative Response and Co-Response Programs to 911 Calls for Service
Dear San Jose City Council:
I'm writing on behalf of Parents Helping Parents (PHP) to express our support of the recommendations in the Memorandum dated January 31, 2025, by Council Members Peter Ortiz, Domingo Candelas, and David Cohen, on the subject of Options for Expanding Alternative Response and Co-Response Programs to 911 Calls for Service. In addition, we would like to ask the City to rigorously research alternative response programs for all instructed categories, and return findings to City Council in time for inclusion in the FY 2026 budget.
Parents Helping Parents has been helping families of children with special needs since 1976. Our mission is to help children and adults with special needs receive support and services they need to reach their full potential by providing information, training, and resources to build strong families and improve systems of care. We are the Parent Training and Information Center (PTI) for families whose children are experiencing disabilities in five counties: Santa Clara, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, San Benito, and Monterey. Our main office is in San Jose and we have satellite offices in East San Jose and Gilroy.
We believe that calls involving individuals with disabilities and mental/behavioral health emergencies often require expertise and protocols that can best be handled by non-police resources. Studies show that people with disabilities represent over half of those killed by law enforcement in the U.S. annually.
They have a 43% chance of arrest. Youth with disabilities are 13% more likely to be arrested than their peers without a disability. The complexity of emergency situations involving people with disabilities and/or mental/behavioral health situations can result in tragic outcomes when the appropriate resources are not utilized at the scene.
We are requesting the City Council to instruct the City Manager to redo its October 2024 “Options for Expanding Alternative Response and Co-Response Programs to 911 Calls for Service Report”, in order to focus on the needs of the disability community. In February 2024, the City Council instructed the City Manager’s Office to research and make recommendations on alternative response models for emergency calls related to mental health issues, unhoused issues, and people with disabilities.
Parents Helping Parents, Inc.
Sobrato Center for Nonprofits – San Jose ~
Telephone ~ Fax
www.php.com ~ A 501(c)3 nonprofit agency
Despite this directive, and the fact that national best practices and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) call for alternative response models, the October 2024 report focuses almost entirely on co- response models. By focusing on co-response models, the report does not adequately address the City Council’s request for guidance on diverting 911 calls from police, since co-response is still a police response. Furthermore, the report’s focus on co-response ignores the requests of the disability community for expanding alternative response as opposed to co-response programs, a preference which is documented in the report itself.
We ask the City Council to direct staff to prioritize alternative response over co-response and to conduct more research on response to community members with physical disabilities (e.g. deaf/hard of hearing, blindness, mobility disabilities) and non-apparent disabilities such as autism. We also request that the City Council votes in favor of the recommendations outlined in the January 31st memo from Council Members Ortiz, Candelas, and Cohen, including a budget allocation for a comprehensive community education campaign to raise awareness of 988 and the direct TRUST line.
Sincerely,
Beverly Wong
Advocacy & Civic Participation Manager
February 3, 2025
Mayor & City Council, et. al
City of San José
200 East Santa Clara Street, 18th Floor
San José, CA 95113
Sent via electronic mail
Re: Item 3.3, Options for Expanding Alternative Response and Co-Response Programs to 911 Calls for Service.
Dear Mayor Mahan, Vice Mayor Foley, and City Council:
This letter was prepared and submitted by the Community Safety Workgroup of the Race Equity Action Leadership (REAL) Coalition , on behalf of the Coalition and 43 undersigned community members and organizations.
We write today to share our thoughts and feedback regarding item 3.3 on the February 4 council agenda, Options for Expanding Alternative Response and Co-Response Programs to 911 Calls for Service .
REAL Recommendations
Direct Staff to:
● Research alternative response models and return to City Council by May, in time for inclusion in the Fiscal Year 2026 budget.
● Conduct a study session during budget season so council can understand:
● The relationship between 911 and 988 dispatch systems. ● Impediments and solutions to expanding criteria for routing calls to 988. ● The benefits and challenges of routing some call types (e.g. welfare checks) to 988.
● Why alternative response options are superior to co-response models for residents with physical, developmental, mental and sensory disabilities. ● Develop a plan to use Opioid Settlement Funds to continue funding of a dedicated San José TRUST team.
1 Letter from Members of the REAL Coalition Community Safety Workgroup re Item 3.3, Options for Expanding Alternative Response and Co-Response Programs to 911 Calls for Service. ● Develop a plan for an active community education plan to raise awareness of TRUST and 988, and reduce reliance on 911.
Discussion
It has been nearly three years since the city received the comprehensive report and policy recommendations from the Reimagining Public Safety Committee. While we have seen movement on a few of the recommendations, the City Council needs to act with urgency to adopt policies and practices that will make San José a safer city.
We have an opportunity to divert thousands of calls a year away from the police and to the right responder. Doing so will save lives, save money, and reduce response times for everyone as police are able to focus on situations that require their skills.
We appreciate months of open and constructive dialog with city staff, in particular Thomas Westphal and Raania Mohsen. We think the staff memo reflects their commitment to learning from community experts and promoting policies that will benefit the health, safety and wellbeing of all residents.
There are many positives in the staff memo and report, including:
● A finding that TRUST can be funded with Opioid Settlement Funds. ● A policy suggestion that the city should continue to fund TRUST. ● A racial equity analysis that makes clear that expanding alternative response is likely to result in greater racial equity for community members. ● A policy suggestion to fund community education on 988 and TRUST. ● A policy suggestion to hire more non sworn (unarmed) officers to deal with some calls.
● Recognition that any decisions on IPV programming should incorporate the ongoing work to identify a non-police response pilot program.
However, the memo and report are too focused on expanding co-response options and fall short in carrying out the full Council direction from February 2024 of exploring more alternative response models, “especially calls involving mental health crises, homelessness, and youth.”
2 Letter from Members of the REAL Coalition Community Safety Workgroup re Item 3.3, Options for Expanding Alternative Response and Co-Response Programs to 911 Calls for Service.
We find the staff memo and report lacking in these ways:
1. All of the research reflected in the report is focused only on co-response. As the staff report details, “community members and advocates also supported prioritizing further investment and resources in alternative response and community-based programs over co-response programs, as alternative team response can create more equitable outcomes for communities of color and others disproportionately impacted by the criminal justice system. ” (emphasis added).
And it also recognizes, “...national best practices for providing mental health services" do not support co-response as noted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration report . (emphasis added). Page 15 of the memo lays out all the reasons people with developmental and physical disabilities are at heightened risk of harm for law enforcement.
2. While including a list of cities using co-response models the memo does not inform the Council that Los Angeles is expanding alternative response and Washington County, Oregon is facing an Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuit over its co-response program.
3. In another lawsuit, Bread for the City v. D.C., the court held that sending police rather than qualified mental health responders to persons in mental health crisis may violate the ADA. Bread for the City v. District of Columbia, No. 1:23-cv-01945-ACR (D.D.C. Feb. 22, 2024). The United States Department of Justice is in charge of interpreting the language of the ADA. In Bread for the City v. D.C. the DOJ filed a statement of interest supporting the contention that sending police as default responders to a mental health crisis violates the ADA.
4. The memo recommends expanding the SJPD Psychiatric Emergency Response Team (co-response) but contains nothing about helping to expand the Mobile Crisis Response Team or Mobile Response and Stabilization Services (both alternative response).
5. The recommendation to explore expanding criteria for 988 calls is vague, lacking a timeline or any specifics about which criteria will be used, metrics for success, or how any expansion will be decided. We understand the need to work collaboratively with the County, which is why we believe this work needs to be brought into the open. Hence our call for a study session during the budget season. It appears staff has not explored other models for alternative response, like the CARE program in Chicago .
3 Letter from Members of the REAL Coalition Community Safety Workgroup re Item 3.3, Options for Expanding Alternative Response and Co-Response Programs to 911 Calls for Service.
6. The staff recommendations don’t actually follow the memo’s racial equity analysis.
7. The memo contains language saying co-response or alternative response is never appropriate for someone who is a danger to themselves, which demonstrates a lack of understanding of suicidality, and could endanger community members who may be suicidal but not be a threat to anyone including themselves.
8. The memo doesn’t acknowledge the evidence that the SJPD’s Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) has failed to protect community members, as documented in this report showing the grievous harm that can happen when CIT trained officers respond to mental health crisis calls.
Memos:
● We support the memo from Councilmembers Ortiz, Candelas and Cohen calling for more community engagement with disabled community members, expedited work on expanding 988 calls, and funding TRUST in the next budget. ● We also support the call for accelerated action in the memo from Councilmember Mulcahy .
Digging into this challenging work is a sign of progress, but it’s time for action, and we urge all of you to support our policy recommendations to create a healthier and safer city.
Sincerely,
Milan Balinton
African American Community Service
Agency
Jeremy Barousse
Amigos de Guadalupe Center for Justice
and Empowerment
Vaughn Villaverde
Asian Americans for Community
Involvement
Richard Konda
Asian Law Alliance
Elisa Koff-Ginsborg
Behavioral Health Contractors'
Association (BHCA)
Josh Selo
Bill Wilson Center
Black Leadership Kitchen Cabinet
Leadership Team
Black Leadership Kitchen Cabinet
Marsha Hovey
CADRE
4 Letter from Members of the REAL Coalition Community Safety Workgroup re Item 3.3, Options for Expanding Alternative Response and Co-Response Programs to 911 Calls for Service.
Joshua Yang
Californians for Justice
Fred Buzo
Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County
Flo Kelly
Coalition on Homelessness, SF
Erin O’Brien
Community Solutions
James Nguyen
De Anza College Political Science
Department
Eugene Torres
Family Supportive Housing
Kristopher Scott
Fresh Lifelines for Youth (FLY)
Wesley Saver
HealthRIGHT 360
Kelly Vazquez
HomeFirst
Teresa Yolotl Gomez
Indian Health Center of Santa Clara
Valley
Darcie Green
Latinas Contra Cancer
Brittany Alvarez
Latino Education Advancement
Foundation
Alison Brunner
Law Foundation of Silicon Valley
Angelica Cortez
LEAD Filipino
Anjee Helstrup-Alvarez
MACLA/Movimiento de Arte y Cultura
Latino Americana
Héctor Sánchez-Flores
National Compadres Network
Colsaria Henderson
Next Door Solutions to Domestic
Violence
Eva Terrazas
Pacific Clinics
Leslie Stafford
Parent Advisory Board, Stanford Autism
Center
Beverly Wong
Maria Daane
Parents Helping Parents
Cindy Bautista
PASOS at Sacred Heart Community
Service
Susan Baird
Racial Justice Commission at Almaden
Hills United Methodist Church
Poncho Guevara
Sacred Heart Community Service
5 Letter from Members of the REAL Coalition Community Safety Workgroup re Item 3.3, Options for Expanding Alternative Response and Co-Response Programs to 911 Calls for Service.
Michael Dao
San José State University Human Rights
Institute
Sean Allen
San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP
Huy Tran
Services, Immigrant Rights and
Education Network (SIREN)
Kyra Kazantzis
Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits
Jennifer Lucas
State Council on Developmental
Disabilities, Central Coast Office
Sandra Asher
Sanding up for Racial Justice (SURJ)
Regina Celestin Williams
SV@Home
Yvonne Maxwell
Ujima
Deborah St. Julien
Urban Sanctuary San Jose
Cynthia Kaufman
Vasconcelos Institute for Democracy in
Action
Sujatha Venkatraman
West Valley Community Services
Jeffrey Buchanan
Working Partnerships USA
About the REAL Coalition
The REAL community of nonprofit leaders and allies has been meeting since June 2020 to use our positional power to advocate for a more racially-just and equitable society; to establish a peer network of leaders committed to fighting white supremacy and systemic racism in ourselves and our institutions; and to hold each other accountable to the promises we made in the Nonprofit Racial Equity Pledge. The REAL coalition is broadly representative of the nonprofit community, including human and community services, behavioral health and health, arts and culture, domestic violence, older adults, food distribution, education, environmental, farming, legal, disability rights, LGTBQ rights, ethnic, immigrant rights, housing and homelessness, criminal justice reform, urban planning, intermediary organizations, and others. Over 125 organizations have participated in the REAL coalition.
You can reach REAL by emailing .
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