How Bay Area cops changed their approach to mental health calls

A mental health clinician wearing a bulletproof vest is helping change the way a Bay Area city responds to some of its emergency calls.

That’s what Kayla Michalovich of CalMatters found when she visited the San Mateo Police Department earlier this month to check a new approach to mental health calls.

The city was one of many looking for a better way to help people in mental health crisis. He participated in a 2021 pilot program from San Mateo County that paired law enforcement officers with mental health clinicians in four cities to free up police officers and avoid unnecessary confrontations.

Instead of police officers having to decide whether to arrest an individual, send them to a hospital for detention, or leave them to their own devices, a paired clinician was deployed to provide additional measures such as safety planning, follow-up calls, and community mental health resources.

“I fill in the gaps,” said San Mateo Police Department mental health clinician Briana Fair, who builds relationships with people she calls clients and joins officers on some emergency calls.

Known as the “collaborator model,” the pilot appears to be working: Involuntary detentions drop by about 17 percent and reduce the chances of future mental health calls to 911, according to a new study by Stanford University. By reducing the number of involuntary detentions, the researchers also estimated that cities save up to $800,000 a year in health care costs.

• Mariela Ruiz-Angeldirector of Alternative Response Initiatives at Georgetown’s Center for Public Safety Innovation: “The idea was never to take the police out of the equation altogether. The idea was that we shouldn’t center them as the primary response to 911. We shouldn’t make public safety about the cops. Public safety is about the appropriate response.”

Since the end of the two-year pilot project, almost all cities in San Mateo County have implemented the collaborative response model. Cities that participated in the pilot also found a way to support the program, including the San Mateo City Police Department, where Fair and another part-time clinician currently work.

Read more here.

In rural California — where medical and mental health care can be hard to find — firearm suicides, especially among older men are shaking up communities and families that have been left behind, reports Ana B. Ibarra of CalMatters.

Rural counties in Northern California have some of the highest rates of gun suicides among older adults. In Trinity County, for example, at least eight men age 70 and older died by apparent firearm suicide between 2020 and 2024. Over a 15-year period, the firearm suicide rate among adults in that age group in seven northern counties, including Trinity, was more than three times the statewide rate.

In addition to owning more guns, residents of these areas have more limited access to medical and mental health services. When these services are further away, people often stay in pain longer due to missed or delayed appointments. In California, more than half of people 70 and older who died by suicide with a gun had a physical health problem, and more than a quarter had a diagnosed mental illness.

• Jake Ritteron the death of his 81-year-old grandfather, Jeffrey Butler, who had health and pain issues and died in Trinity County in 2024 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound: “I’m sorry he didn’t get the help he needed and I’m sorry he felt so strongly that this was the path he chose.”

Read more here.

By July 2026, all K-12 schools in California — including private schools — must have protocols in place to help protect students from sexual abuse by teachersas directed by a new state law, CalMatters’ Carolyn Jones writes.

The law, which takes effect Jan. 1, requires schools to take a number of measures to curb abuse and hold them accountable, including training students, teachers and other school staff to recognize signs of sexual contact and report misconduct.

The law’s most notable provision is the creation of a database to track teachers credibly accused of abuse. The database will be made available to schools so administrators can use it to screen prospective teachers. The database aims to curb the practice of schools rehiring teachers who have left another school after being accused of sexual abuse.

Read more here.

A recent report found that electricity use and carbon emissions from California data centers have nearly doubled in recent years, with water use rising even higher. CalMatters’ Alejandro Lazo and Director of Video Strategy Robert Meeks have a video segment the environmental report as part of our partnership with PBS SoCal. Watch it here.

SoCalMatters airs at 5:58pm weekdays on PBS SoCal.