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also prevent community members from reaching out when the path to care and services <br />goes through law enforcement. Having a non -police response team will make it more likely <br />for people to connect to the services they need. <br />Nationally, there is broad public support for crisis response by mental health professionals <br />rather than police. A June 2020 report and survey[ by Data for Progress and The Justice <br />Collaborative Institute found the following: <br />"68% of likely voters support the creation of non -law enforcement emergency <br />responders programs; <br />70% of likely voters support a non -police response for when a family member calls <br />9-1-1 because of a mental health crisis; and <br />"65% of likely voters support a non -police response to a drug overdose." <br />Several other cities, both locally and nationwide, have launched or are considering <br />programs for response teams that do not include police. We urge you to consider these <br />programs as examples of how the San Mateo County pilot program can be structured. <br />Santa Clara County has endorsed an MHSA Innovation project for a Community <br />Mobile Response (CMR) program that "seeks to maximize the ability to expand crisis <br />response for individuals and families by adopting a community model that uses not <br />only mental health workers, but also community workers, people with lived <br />experience, social workers, and emergency medical support." This program will be <br />accessed through a neutral, trusted, non -law enforcement phone number rather than <br />through 911 or 311. <br />San Francisco has launched a program in which the health and fire departments <br />collaborate to form unarmed mobile teams of paramedics, mental health <br />professionals and peer support counselors. <br />Denver has created the Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) program which <br />sends a two -person team consisting of a mental health worker and a paramedic. An <br />article published three months after the program's launch noted that the unarmed <br />team had not needed to call police for backup at all during that time. <br />Los Angeles City Council members have proposed an emergency response model <br />to send trained, unarmed specialists to respond to crises involving homelesseness or <br />mental health and substance abuse issues. <br />