Santa Ana Launches Mental Health Co-Responder Program
The city of Santa Ana has launched a pilot program that embeds Behavioral Health Unit clinicians with police officers. The initiative aims to provide on-site mental health expertise during select 911 calls to de-escalate crises and divert individuals from the criminal justice system. The program's effectiveness will be evaluated to determine if it should be implemented more widely across the city.
- This co-responder program is a new pilot initiative building on the city's existing efforts to address mental health crises. - It is distinct from the Santa Ana Multi-Disciplinary Response Teams (SMART) program, which was launched in 2022 to handle non-emergency calls concerning homelessness and mental health, and which has connected over 1,000 individuals to housing. - In November 2024, the ongoing SMART program received a boost of $963,000 in federal funding through a Byrne Justice Assistance Grant to support its operations. - The city also has a long-standing collaboration with the Orange County Health Care Agency through the Psychological Emergency Response Team (P.E.R.T.), which pairs mental health clinicians with officers to assist individuals with mental illness and substance abuse problems. - This new program specifically embeds clinicians from a "Behavioral Health Unit" with police officers to respond to certain 911 calls, aiming to provide on-the-spot de-escalation and mental health support. - This co-responder model is part of a larger public safety strategy in Santa Ana, which includes recent technological additions like a "Drone as a First Responder" system approved in February 2026 to give real-time information during emergencies. - The approach of embedding mental health professionals with law enforcement is becoming more common nationwide as a method to improve outcomes for individuals in crisis and to allow police officers to focus on crime. - The pilot program's performance will be assessed to determine if the model should be expanded across the entire city, a standard practice for ensuring the effectiveness of such initiatives.
