ACLU gets win in court amid push to change DC's handling of mental health crisis calls
WASHINGTON - The ACLU is touting a major victory for disability rights as they push for changes in how D.C. handles mental health crises and the case could have wide-ranging impacts beyond our area.
Bread For The City is a nonprofit that provides food, legal help, and resources for people in D.C. and with the help of the ACLU, they are suing the District of Columbia, claiming that the city's police response to mental health crises often makes things worse.
"They are not trained to respond to the person in crisis, they are inherently triggering to the person in crisis and we need someone safe to call, someone who is trained to respond," said Ashika Verriest, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project.
This lawsuit began back in July 2023 and accuses D.C. of violating the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.
On Tuesday, a district court judge ruled to move forward with the case, after attorneys with the District of Columbia filed a motion to dismiss.
According to the ACLU, the issue at hand is that when people experiencing a mental health crisis call 911 in D.C., they are more often than not getting police officers sent to respond, which can escalate the situation or trigger the person.
The goal of the lawsuit, Verriest said, is to have dispatch start sending D.C.'s mental health providers to these specific instances.
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"The problem is that when you call 911, you very rarely get that type of response," Verriest. "Per our complaint looking at a particular time period, you would be getting that type of response less than 1% of the time and even if you did get that response, you would not get it in a timely way. You would be waiting hours."
D.C. officials tell FOX 5 that because it is an ongoing case, they will not be commenting.
MPD referred FOX 5 to the Office of the Attorney General's office and we are awaiting a response. DC Police Union did not respond to a request for comment.
The judge wanted to make clear that her ruling wasn't a criticism of police conduct – just that officers are put in situations they aren't trained for.
When asked how the mental health professionals would be funded, Verriest said, "Look at the amount of taxpayer money that is spent on police officers responding to this, the amount of time police officers have to spend with someone in crisis, the amount of overtime that involves and the amount of time they spend taking someone to a hospital waiting - and whether that money can be used better to have the right responders to respond."
As for the next steps: both sides are preparing for a trial, but could reach a settlement beforehand.