San Jose has entered into an agreement with Santa Clara County to supply a further emergency support team for town, fulfilling its commitment to supply alternative responses to mental health emergencies apart from police.
The city will provide $450,000 to create a brand new Trusted Response Urgent Support Team (TRUST), which can include a primary responder, crisis intervention and peer support specialists, and a dedicated hotline for city employees to succeed in dispatchers and help people in need more quickly. This is the primary time San Jose has allocated funding for these additional services.
“We all agree that it is important to invest in alternative response methods and make sure that when an emergency occurs, we send the right person or the right resource,” said San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan.
Although there’s currently friction between town and Santa Clara County authorities over a proposed jail diversion program to be situated in a short lived housing development in South San Jose, Mahan said he has had discussions with county officials about providing more mental health services and believes cooperation between government agencies is crucial to bring about meaningful change.
San Jose has faced questions on the way it responds to incidents involving mental illness after an investigation by the Bay Area News Group, KQED and the California Reporting Project found that over a decade, nearly three-quarters of all use-of-force incidents involving San Jose police involved individuals with mental health issues — including 80% of killings.
Responding to mental health emergencies can also be a burden for the police, who’re currently fighting a shortage of staff.
“This program is a critical milestone for our city that was long overdue and will help create a safer and more compassionate San Jose,” said fifth District Councilmember Peter Ortiz.
A city-commissioned evaluation of 911 calls last 12 months found that 58.5% of reports were flagged as mental health-related, without requiring a police report. The same study also found that just about 1 / 4 of homeless-related calls resulted in a citation or arrest.
“They're taking a lot of calls where people aren't committing a crime, they're having an emergency,” Mahan said. “It takes up a lot of resources and our police have indicated they'd like to see an alternative.”
TRUST teams provide a direct short-term solution and have proven results. A 2023 report shows that in 72% of cases they were in a position to stabilize people without the necessity for further assistance.
“We want family, friends and community members to be matched with the right responders for their needs,” wrote Brian Powers, executive director of Neighborhood Hands, in an email to the City Council supporting the initiative. “Crisis response without police is public safety. We look forward to continuing to expand crisis response without police in cases where another type of responder would be more effective, such as welfare checks and homeless incidents.”
While San Jose has reallocated money from City Hall beautification and modernization funds to fund TRUST, Mahan said the project must be operational by April. He also urged town to gather more data on residents' connections to services and report on results on the bottom to extend accountability.
“I've seen this happen walking around and seeing police citing and arresting the same people over and over again,” Mahan said. “I want to see a real intervention that breaks this cycle.”
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