The San Luis Obispo Police Department has taken part in the One Mind Pledge through the International Chiefs of Police. This pledge is a commitment to implementing the IACP’s four promising practices of the One Mind Pledge over a 12 to 36-month period.
The Four Promising Practices are as follows:
- Partner with one or more community mental health organization(s).
- Develop and implement a model policy addressing police response to persons affected by mental illness.
- Train and certify 100 percent of San Luis Obispo’s sworn officers, and selected non-sworn staff, in Mental Health First Aid for Public Safety.
- Provide Crisis Intervention Team training to a minimum of 20 percent of San Luis Obispo’s sworn officers and selected non-sworn staff.
The San Luis Obispo Police Department has actively been training its officers to meet this challenge. During the next 12 to 36 months, the department is committed to meeting this goal. The department has identified this as one of its top goals. We as a department realize the need for this training with the large volume of police contacts involving people suffering from mental illness and its related side effects. We also realize the significant need for additional training in this area. To date the department has almost 70 percent of officers trained and many are scheduled for training in the next few months.
Please visit https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/i-pledge/ to learn more about the One Mind Pledge.