Supervisors Hear Progress, Data Gaps and a June Dispatch Shift for Street Crisis Response Teams

San Francisco supervisors heard updates April 20 on a network of city street response teams designed to divert noncriminal behavioral-health and homelessness calls away from police — but officials and supervisors repeatedly flagged data gaps and capacity concerns as the city moves toward a planned dispatch change in June.

Chair Ronan opened the Budget & Appropriations Committee hearing by saying the goal is to “reduce SFPD’s role in responding to calls for service related to homelessness and mental illness,” and to make sure alternative teams are working as intended. She listed about 10 teams funded by the city, including the Street Crisis Response Team (SCRT), the Healthy Streets Operations Center (HSOC), EMS 6, a Street Overdose Response Team and a new Street Wellness Response Team; she also noted an alternative response funded by the board, CART, had not yet launched.

Fred Brusso of the Budget and Legislative Analyst’s office summarized a report focused on SCRT and HSOC and presented charts showing the changing share of 800B calls (the local code for noncriminal mentally disturbed-person incidents). Brusso said police handled roughly 85% of those calls in December 2020 but about 46.6% in February 2022, while the street team share increased — findings he described as estimates because of limitations in 911/CAD records. “The 911 call records, unfortunately, don't allow for tracking the exact number of 800B calls to which the police department responds,” the report said during the…