Ofc. Kemmer: BH4, we can take over. Hey, you all right? You okay? Sarah Scafani: We just want to see if there's anything that we can help you with. Ofc. Kemmer: What do you think you need? Speaker 3: ... with mental health and real bad episodes, you guys have literally showed up and saved my life. Ofc. Kemmer: I'm glad. I'm glad that we can help. This is what policing looks like now. When people talk about police reform, we're trying to be mindful of how we interact with the community of populations that need a different approach. Sarah Scafani: Building relationships with people, being an advocate for them. Ofc. Kemmer: To help someone at their worst time, it's kind of my dream job. Hi, I'm Officer Billy Kemmer. I'm with the Portland Police Bureau's Behavioral Health Unit. Sarah Scafani: My name is Sarah Scafani. I'm a mental health crisis responder with the Behavioral Health Unit with Portland Police. Ofc. Kemmer: BH4. Behavioral health's response teams are co-responder models with police officers and clinicians, so I'm actually partnered with a mental health clinician all day. Sarah Scafani: Can I put a third in there? East? Ofc. Kemmer: I think so. Sarah Scafani: My partner is Billy Kimmer. Ofc. Kemmer: For the BHU, we've been doing this for...? Sarah Scafani: Four and a half years. Ofc. Kemmer: Four and a half years. You get to see people in a light that's different than I think a lot of other people ever see. The bad news is he's going to just be on the streets with his mental health issues. The Behavioral Health Unit has five behavioral health response teams. Sarah Scafani: And there's one for Central Precinct, East Precinct, and North Precinct, and then two specialty teams. Ofc. Kemmer: Our job is to engage and interact with folks who are experiencing mental health issues. Sarah Scafani: We carry a caseload of individuals who are generating frequent police contact due to their mental illness, and so we get those referrals from patrol officers. Ofc. Kemmer: So if patrol officers come across individuals who are experiencing crisis or mental health issues, and they're at a loss or they need extra assistance or someone to follow up, just deeper follow up on that person, they'll send us the referral and why, and then it gets assigned by the sergeants. Sarah Scafani: And so our goal is to go meet those individuals out in the community and try to mitigate the contact that they're having with law enforcement and get them connected to the appropriate resources. Ofc. Kemmer: All right. We'll see you tomorrow, okay? Speaker 4: Okay. Sarah Scafani: Take care. Ofc. Kemmer: All right. There's a cross-section of folks who exist where criminality's an issue, but mental health or addiction are very prevalent or the driving forces of their behavior. So the Behavioral Health Unit was designed to get to the core issues that people are facing so that we can get effective results. Sarah Scafani: Billy and I are the houseless individual caseload. Ofc. Kemmer: Folks mainly living outside. So part of what we do is take information from reports, from patrol, and try to locate those folks. Sarah Scafani: If we find them, assess them, help them get to the hospital if they need to stabilize, or whatever kind of service that would help them mitigate their crisis. Ofc. Kemmer: He shows on a well check at Broadway and Harvey Mill. Do you need any help of any kind? Just some water? Okay. Sarah Scafani: Sometimes while we're driving around, we do respond to active 911 calls as well and try to come up with some sort of safety plan for that individual. Ofc. Kemmer: BH4, we can take over. Did he say anything about what was going on with her? Sarah Scafani: [inaudible 00:03:24]. Ofc. Kemmer: Hi. Sarah Scafani: For this individual, when we approached after we got the 911 call, she was pretty immediately clearly disorganized. Not a lot of what she was saying was making sense. Pretty delusional as well. But how are you getting food? Her inability to answer any sort of safety questions, when she ate food, anything like that, due to that, due to her level of disorganization, her vulnerability in the community, we determined that she met hold criteria. Ofc. Kemmer: We're just concerned that you're not able to take care of yourself, so we're going to get you to the hospital so you can get help. Police officer hold or a director's hold, which are written by qualified mental health clinicians, the criteria's really high. But essentially it's if we believe they're a danger to themselves, a danger to somebody else, or unable to care for themselves, we have the legal authority to take them into custody and get them to a hospital for assessment. Sarah Scafani: And the doctor then will determine what the next steps are for her. Now we at least know who she is, and if we interact with her again in the community, we have a little bit of history. Ofc. Kemmer: Whatever connection we make, we try to take that connection to the next level. We're handing that person off to whatever system that's going to be able to take the reins and move forward with them, so it's not just a drop-off and hope for the best. So whether it's hospitals, service providers, clinics, or even jail, we follow up to make sure that that person's getting connected beyond just that entryway. All officers get 40 hours of CIT training. It's crisis intervention training, it's communication, a lot of de-escalation, how to interact with folks who are in high- crisis situations. The BHU developed enhanced crisis intervention training, which is volunteer officers who are selected to go through another 40 hours of training and then ongoing in-service. The behavioral health unit where I work, BHRT officers have the foundational 40 hours. We are all ECIT certified. We also have to certify in other trainings: the suicide intervention training, trauma-informed care training, involuntary commitment program training, and a threat assessment training. Specific things that we have to certify in in order to hold this position. This is my partner, Sarah. Speaker 5: Oh, you're the partner? Ofc. Kemmer: Yeah. Speaker 5: Hey. Sarah Scafani: Yeah, I'm a social worker. Speaker 5: Social worker. Sarah Scafani: Yeah, so- Speaker 5: That's who I need to see the most, a social- Sarah Scafani: Okay. Speaker 5: ... help me get this- Sarah Scafani: Between my officer partner and I, we come with different backgrounds and trainings, and so having these two different approaches can be really helpful. Ofc. Kemmer: Having a police officer and a clinician partnership, we are able to draw from each other the expertise from both sides of the partnership in order to find better solutions for people. Sarah Scafani: Sometimes someone doesn't want to talk to me because I'm a mental health professional, and they'd rather talk to my police officer partner or vice versa. And the fact that we have the flexibility to do that is really great. Ofc. Kemmer: It allows us to respond to a wider variety of folks. Hey, you all right? You okay? In this job, you are able to redirect someone's absolute worst day into something that can be positive, somewhat positive, at least a different solution for what they thought was going to be the worst outcome possible. Okay. Sarah Scafani: All right, thank you. Getting them food, clothes, blankets, into a shelter, those immediate, basic safety and daily life needs, or getting them connected to housing and working with them until they get permanent housing, and just being that support for them until they get connected to longer term supports, and so you get to build that relationship with individuals. Speaker 6: At 2:30 you'll be here? Sarah Scafani: Yep. Ofc. Kemmer: 2:30. Yeah, we'll come knock on your door. This is what policing looks like now. And when people talk about police reform, we're trying to be mindful of how we interact with the community, of populations that need a different approach. The more that we interact in this way, the more that we are approaching things holistically, the better outcomes we get for people who are caught in this revolving cycle. Sarah Scafani: I really think the community needs to know about the work that we're doing because it is a resource that can be helpful for those who are in crisis or need services. Speaker 3: Every crisis I've ever had with mental health and a real bad episodes, you guys have literally showed up and saved my life. Ofc. Kemmer: Well, I'm glad. I'm glad that we can help. To help someone at their worst time is a very powerful place to be. It's a fascinating job, and it's a fascinating window into the human experience. And yeah, it's kind of my dream job.