AUSTIN, Texas — A state representative from Austin has filed a bill that could begin removing police officers from mental health emergency calls and transferring much of the responsibility to paramedics.
The effort comes amid attention on the recent conviction of Austin police officer Christopher Taylor, who shot and killed a man with a knife suffering a mental health episode.
State Rep. Donna Howard didn’t cite the shooting involving Taylor as the driving force behind the bill. Instead, she said she is focused on the goal of making sure those having a mental health break get the best help.
“I think this is a very positive first step in starting to remove law enforcement from being the primary responders when it comes to mental health calls,” Michael Bullock, president of the Austin Police Association, said.
In the days after Taylor was convicted of deadly conduct and sentenced to two years in prison in the shooting death of Mauris DeSilva, Bullock called for a policy shift, in which officers would not respond to mental health calls.
Austin Police Department officials rejected the idea, but now, the effort at the State Capitol could diminish their role in certain circumstances.
Howard’s bill would give authority to paramedics to seek emergency detentions for a person suffering from mental illness and posing a threat to themselves or someone else.
“The paramedics oftentimes already have relationships with those in their communities who have mental health issues,” Howard said.
Right now in Texas, only police officers have the ability to detain someone in a mental health crisis, meaning that they are frequently called for such emergencies.
Under the proposed legislation, a paramedic who detains a person must take them to the nearest appropriate inpatient mental health facility or a mental health facility “deemed suitable by the mental health authority.” They must also file a “notice of detention” about why they believe the person should be held.
Howard says police officers may still play a role.
“They shouldn’t be the people there to provide the bulk of that intervention,” Howard said. “That is not their expertise and they shouldn’t have to be the ones doing that.”
Bullock says such a move toward medics would allow police to prioritize their primary mission of public safety.
“My position is that law enforcement shouldn’t be the primary responders and we shouldn’t be the ones that bear the responsibility of solving a mental health crisis when we are not the experts and have never claimed to be,” he said.
The effort appears to be gaining support from both law enforcement and the paramedic community.
Howard says the sheriff’s association first approached her about this idea. Selena Xie, the president of the Austin-Travis County EMS Employees Association, agreed that medics have more advanced training than police in how to handle these types of calls and supports their involvement in such calls.