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Resident questions Arcadia response to mental‑health crises, asks to see bodycam footage
Summary
Amy Wu Chong told the council she was involuntarily hospitalized July 29, 2023, said she was denied use of her phone while hospitalized and asked why she cannot access body‑worn camera footage from that night; she requested a city presentation on how local crisis response teams coordinate and noted SGB Cares funding appears absent.
Amy Wu Chong, a longtime Arcadia resident, used her public comment time on April 7 to urge greater transparency about local responses to mental‑health crises and to ask the council to explain how crisis teams, police and fire coordinate.
"What do these codes really mean? And why am I not allowed to see the body cam footage from that night of 07/29/2023? Don't we have the Freedom of Information Act?" Wu Chong asked, referring to Arcadia Police Department codes cited in the transcript and to her inability to access video of her involuntary hospitalization.
Wu Chong described being involuntarily hospitalized July 29, 2023, and said she was denied use of her phone and was not given patients' rights information. She said she has worked with regional mental‑health organizations and raised concerns that the local SGB Cares program appears to lack funding.
She thanked the fire chief, identified in her remarks as Chen Soe en, for waiving an emergency ambulance fee of $474.74 that was assessed to her, and said it took more than two years before she learned she no longer needed to pay the charge.
Wu Chong asked the council for a formal presentation from the city explaining how the existing mental‑health crisis response teams that serve Arcadia coordinate with the Arcadia Police Department and Fire Department to ensure transparency when someone experiences suicidal ideation or severe emotional distress.
The council did not take immediate action during public comment. The speaker concluded by urging that patient abuse be treated as a crime and thanked the council for listening.
