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Sponsor seeks statutory clarity on use of force for emergency evaluations; advocates warn defaulting to law‑enforcement response risks harm
Summary
A sponsor asked the House committee to add statutory clarity on the use of force when law enforcement serves emergency psychiatric evaluation petitions and to allow limited extensions for petitions not served within five days.
A bill to clarify the use of force and to authorize limited extensions for emergency psychiatric evaluation petitions prompted sharply divided testimony during a House Health and Government Operations Committee hearing.
"What this bill does is it provides clarity in our statute about use of force when it comes to our mental health patients who are in crisis," Delegate Olston (sponsor) told the committee, arguing the change is intended to give law enforcement certainty when serving orders that are civil in form but can be dangerous in practice.
Representatives of the Prince George’s County Sheriff’s Office…
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