(Feb. 22, 2017) The San Francisco Police Department’s first shooting of 2017 involved a man with serious mental illness, prompting questions about the disproportionate number of mentally ill shot by police in the city and around the county (“S.F. police shooting raises questions about city’s response to psychiatric crises,” KQED, Feb. 16).
Diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, Sean Moore was likely in the midst of a psychiatric crisis on January 6, when two San Francisco Police Department officers arrived at Moore’s home in response to a complaint from one of his neighbors.
The officers could have used the de-escalation techniques they learned through the Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) program the SFPD has offered for over a decade. The program teaches law enforcement officers how to recognize the signs of mental illness and interact appropriately with mentally ill suspects.
But these particular officers had not received CIT training, so they may or may not have recognized that Moore was suffering from a psychiatric illness as they pepper sprayed him, then shot him in the groin and abdomen.
Moore’s mother, Cleo, argues that police should have been aware of Moore’s mental illness, as they had taken him to the hospital for emergency psychiatric treatment several time in the past. Now, she is calling for changes in the department.
Even if the officers had no knowledge of Moore’s history, his family and attorneys say the signs were clear that he was severely mentally ill, and they should have backed off and waited for things to calm down.
“Something has to be done to help the mentally ill in this city, and the Police Department needs to be changed to learn how to deal with mentally ill patients,” Cleo Moore said outside a recent court hearing for her son. “Back off from the situation, call Crisis Intervention. The city has crisis intervention. They could have come out and helped them to diffuse the situation. Don’t shoot somebody.”
Fortunately, Moore was not killed, but far too many others are not so lucky.
It’s a sad reality highlighted in the 2015 Treatment Advocacy Center report, “Overlooked in the Undercounted"—people suffering with serious mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed during a police encounter than other civilians approached or stopped by law enforcement.
Situations like this give rise to some serious questions about the type and amount of training law enforcement receives on how to appropriately interact with mentally ill suspects.
Until CIT training is made mandatory for all law enforcement officers, dangerous and preventable situations like this will surely continue.
Read our report "Overlooked in the Undercounted" to learn more about the role of mental illness in fatal police encounters.
To comment, please visit our Facebook page.