Gearhart police adopt controversial policy about responding to mental health calls

(FEBRUARY 15, 2021) Gearhart is a small city on the northern Oregon Coast. Its police department has only three officers. However, its police chief Jeff Bowman recently made a big announcement in a letter to city leaders.

According to OPB News, Bowman told city leaders that, beginning January 16, 2021, the police department will no longer be the first responders to some kinds of mental health emergencies.

“I think that sometimes these individuals, even if they’re asking for help, they want someone else to talk to other than a law enforcement officer,” Bowman said. “And to be honest with you, [police officers] aren’t trained to be mental health counselors.”

Police will respond if a person is actively committing a serious crime or if there is risk of someone being physically hurt.

Many people who protested and demonstrated in Portland and around the country last summer agree with this strategy: decrease the work of police in order to increase the work of social services for activities that are not crimes.

“Having a mental health condition is not a crime,” states the Gearhart police letter. “And these [people] should not be treated as such. We have a duty to protect all lives, and sometimes that task is best done by not doing anything. ... It is time for the social services community to step up and start taking an active role."

One challenge is money. City leaders are considering changes to the budget. They want to find money for these social services. However, Gearhart is a small town. It relies on a mental health program run by county government.

Amy Baker manages that program. She says, "The biggest challenge that we have is that, based on the funding that we get from the state, we have one crisis worker on 24/7. ... The problem is that when [Chief Bowman] says ‘social service agencies need to step up,’ I would gladly step up, but we need to be funded to the level that would allow us to be able to do that.”

Baker's program responds to about 40 calls a month. About 30% of those calls are to assist police officers.

“Law enforcement gets prioritization because we really want to minimize their involvement if possible,” Baker says. “And we want to avoid having people go to the emergency department also, if possible. And so, often we co-respond with law enforcement to situations where somebody is having a behavioral health crisis.”

The problem is not easy to solve because there are many layers to mental health services, from city and county to state and federal government. All agencies face similar financial challenges in addition to rules and regulations. The system is fragmented; different agencies do not always work well together.