Two years after Redding launched its second team to deal with police calls involving people at the mental health breaking point, the city’s Crisis Intervention Response Team (CIRT) is having struggles of its own.
Come January, finances are prompting the city to disband its second crisis squad, which was launched in January 2023, in part with funds awarded from the national opioid lawsuit settlement.
That will leave Redding back where it started — with one crisis intervention team, comprised of two police officers and a veteran licensed clinical social worker supplied by the Shasta County Department of Health and Human Services who specializes in working with people with severe mental illness.
The reduction means the crisis force will cut back its days of operations, from six days a week to four, said Redding Police Capt. Chris Smyrnos.
Salaries and benefits for two Redding officers amounts to about $507,000, he said. About 15% of funding for the program comes from Redding’s general fund and the rest from grants, he said.
So far in 2024, the two crisis teams have responded to 1,467 calls for service. Those have included providing help with law enforcement patrols and giving about people referrals to drug rehabilitation, medical or mental health programs.
When police officials were outlining the need for crisis team funding to the city council several years ago, there had been 900 law enforcement calls for service reported in 2020 that involved someone mired in a mental health crisis.
Redding police have handled a total of 105,670 calls for service so far in 2024, up from a total of 99,507 calls for service in all of 2023, according to police data.
While no statistics were shared on cost savings or effectiveness due to the CIRT effort, Smyrnos said that having the crisis team in place “takes pressure off of patrol because now that person is not a daily call for service because they’ve gotten the help they need.”He added that “It’s hard to put a cost amount on things that don’t happen in the future.”
Other assistance groups say they rely on Redding’s crisis team, including health care provider Hill Country Health and Wellness Center’s mobile van, which is staffed by therapists. Hill Country’s professionals do not respond to calls where violence or weapons are involved.
The future for Redding’s crisis intervention response efforts
Hill Country CEO Jo Campbell said the CIRT squad “makes a terrific difference for us. When we are in a situation where we’re worried about safety, we have officers who are also trained to handle mental health calls to support us.”
As far as the service’s upcoming cutback, Campbell said she’s not worried about having fewer CIRT officers.
“What I would assume is that if we needed them, those beat officers who are trained and have served on the CIRT team could respond if there was a need,” said Campbell. Hill Country can also continue to rely on law enforcement officials from Anderson or Shasta County, she said: “We’ll make it work.”
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Incoming Shasta County District 4 Supervisor Matt Plummer said while he’s supportive of the CIRT model, “I haven’t seen any data, so I don’t know for sure what we can say and can’t say in terms of actual effectiveness and reduced service calls or success in getting people access to services.””I’d be very interested to see that. I think that would provide justification for finding the funding,” he said. “I would like to see us continue to invest in those types of innovations.”
Going forward, two Redding police officers, Joanna Bland and Josh Tracey, will staff the crisis intervention team. They’re trained in “deescalation techniques” and are accompanied by social worker Nikki Brandon, who will be on the team full-time.
“Depending on how budgets and other things ideally work out, we’d love to have that keep CIRT fully staffed,” said Smyrnos. “We never got a second clinician for mental health,” he said.
In an email, Bailey Cogger, Behavioral Health and Social Services deputy branch director at the Shasta Health and Human Services Agency, said there are “internal conversations about adding a second clinician to the crisis response effort in 2025.”
File photo – Redding police officers conduct an investigation along Hartnell Avenue on Jan. 9, 2022.
Redding facing ongoing police recruitment challenges
Meanwhile, the two CIRT positions being dispatched to other police duties have not been eliminated from the Redding force.
A total of three police positions, including one officer now working in the traffic unit, are being reallocated back to street patrol duty for now, said Smyrnos, “just to make sure that our regular patrol shifts are properly staffed.”
Like many police departments in California, Redding has struggled to fill vacancies. While authorized to have 122 officers, there are now 115, Smyrnos said.
Top police officials are expected to make their case for funding during a series of city budget workshops expected to start in late January. The city council will ultimately decide how much city funding is allocated toward the CIRT effort.
Smyrnos said that having the crisis team in place helps people in distress get “the help they need or the housing they need or they’ve been connected with family that can give them the proper support,” while taking pressure off officers on regular patrol.
“So there’s definitely value in having those resources,” he said.
Michele Chandler covers dining, food, public safety and whatever else comes up for the Redding Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. Accepts story tips at 530-338-7753 and at mrchandler@gannett.com. Please support our entire newsroom’s commitment to public service journalism by subscribing today.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Redding police crisis response team will downsize in 2025
