Section Two, H.B. 5372, An Act Permitting Clinical Social Workers to Conduct Periodic Behavioral Health Assessments of Police Officers and Promoting the Increased Use of Clinical Social Workers By Law Enforcement Units When Issuing Emergency Certificates

People who are in mental health crises need treatment. As such, public health and social work actors should be the ones to take the lead when addressing mental health crises, not as an auxillary afterthought to police. Rather than continue to entrench the role of police in mental health, this Committee should seek to divest police from this function entirely.

We have significant concerns with House Bill 5372 because of the its failure to reduce the role of policing in our communities, particularly with regard to some of our most vulnerable residents when they are in need of medical care for a mental health crisis.