Burlington’s citizen oversight Police Commission has requested the City Council and the mayor organize a mental health summit to address the considerable rise in mental health issues the city is experiencing.
At its Tuesday night meeting, the commission unanimously passed a resolution inviting more than 20 community members and organizations into a discussion about how Burlington can create and fund mental health care for people caught in the legal system. The proposal pointed to a rise in mental health calls that have “severely impacted” the Burlington Police Department.
The idea still needs council approval to move forward. The resolution has been sent to Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger, City Council President Max Tracy, P-Ward 2, and the council’s Public Safety Committee.
The commission requested the summit occur within the next three months. The body asked organizations such as Mental Health First Burlington, the Howard Center and Pathways Vermont to join the summit, along with members of the New American, LGBTQ+ and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) communities.
“In our role as commissioners, we see the impact of mental health on policing, and the holes in our services,” the resolution stated. “We emphasize the need for action is urgent.”
Commissioners wrote in the resolution that police officers do not have the training to be front-line health care responders and that the mental health “problem” cannot be addressed by police response alone.
“Burlington is in immediate need of an effective system of care, that is, a collaborative network of providers that can efficiently and comprehensively respond to mental health needs,” the resolution stated.
In the first nine months of 2021, the Burlington Police Department has responded to 645 incidents that have a mental health-related component, according to figures provided by the city. Acting Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad told commissioners Tuesday evening that 2020 saw the largest number of mental health incidents the city has seen annually, although he did not specify a figure.
In 2016, mental health calls accounted for 5.4% of the police department’s overall call volume, Murad said. By 2020, mental health calls represented 9% of total call volume. He added that overall call volume has dropped significantly over the years, which contributes to the rate of increase of mental health calls.
Even if the city props up a more robust mental health system of care soon, Murad said he expects officers would have to continue to respond to mental-health incidents in the short term. For example, he said, some issues have evolved into unsafe situations, including dangerous behaviors from people experiencing untreated illnesses.
He said he hopes that a few years from now, police won’t have to respond to as many mental health calls because new services will prevent crime before it happens and “drastically” reduce the strain on officers.
Commissioner Suzy Comerford said that the resolution aims to fortify preventive mental health care in the city.
“This, to me, addresses both some of the holes in our services, but it’s also a preventative measure,” Comerford said. “It helps our community toward wellness as a whole.”
Detective Cpl. Oren Byrne also spoke at Tuesday night’s meeting about the strain officers experience when responding to mental health calls. He said his 16 weeks of training at the police academy does not compare to the years of experience that come with a clinical mental health master’s degree. He does not think officers should be responding to mental health calls when it’s clear someone needs care.Â
Byrne said the mental health system and the criminal justice system often have trouble working together. When someone is charged and found incompetent by the courts, Byrne said the Department of Mental Health usually cannot coerce someone to receive mental health services because of strict standards and guidelines for forced hospitalization.Â
“There’s definitely a lot of frustration from the police officers’ point of view,” Byrne said.