Police Advisory Commission hears STAX update on homelessness response and mobile crisis

The Police Advisory Commission on Wednesday heard a detailed update on STAX (South Tahoe Alternative Collaborative Services), the local program that pairs law enforcement with behavioral-health partners to respond to homelessness and mental-health crises in South Lake Tahoe.

Officer Matt Hazlet, who runs STAX for the South Lake Police Department, told the commission the team’s work focuses on outreach to people experiencing homelessness and co-responses with clinicians. Hazlet said STAX has referred dozens of people into housing and service pathways and has shifted many mental-health calls to clinicians: "Now a lot of our mental-health calls…we're able to have Sierra Mental Wellness respond whether that's by phone or in the field," Hazlet said. He reported that since April 2023 he has handled about 1,394 incidents, taken 191 reports and made 116 arrests; he said those figures reflect changing tracking methods and may not be exhaustive.

Dr. Elizabeth McNamera of Barton described plans for a street-medicine outreach model that would provide wound care, basic medical screening, and access to medications to treat opioid and alcohol use disorders in a low-barrier, walk-up format. "A lot of people just prefer to access healthcare that way," McNamera said, noting the program would aim to make clinic access easier for patients who face stigma or difficulty navigating appointments.

Panelists said funding is a mix of local support and redirected opioid-settlement dollars. McNamera said Barton currently supports substance-use navigators through settlement funds and that those funds could also cover startup equipment and personnel for mobile outreach; she raised concern about potential Medicaid cuts that could affect patient coverage. Kim Peterson of TCH/the Homeless Coalition praised STAX’s community relationships and said housing people has reduced their interaction with the criminal-legal system, while acknowledging the coalition lacks comprehensive arrest-reduction data: "I don't know data if it's really decreased in general, but…we talk about certain folks often that…they've been housed, so they haven't been out causing issues," Peterson said.

Chris Karns, El Dorado County’s behavioral-health deputy director, described the county’s mobile crisis program, which has fielded countywide calls since April. "Since we launched until yesterday, we've logged 732 calls…175 urgent calls…30 calls were directly from local law enforcement…and another 30 were transported to the hospital," Karns said. He explained the 24/7 mobile-crisis line (530-622-3345) is answered by a screening service that warm-transfers callers to a vendor or routes calls through 911/dispatch when appropriate.

Commissioners praised the partnership between police and behavioral-health providers and asked that the STAX team provide annual updates. Chair and staff agreed to place two items on the next PAC agenda: PAC input on the annual report to city council and a formal introduction from Chief Jeff Robertson, who said he fully supports STAX and expects it to remain a community priority.

The commission approved the previous meeting’s minutes by roll-call vote before the presentation. The commission opened public comment periods twice during the STAX discussion; no members of the public spoke in person or on Zoom about the item during either opportunity.