Fearing Lawsuits, El Cajon Police Stopped Responding to Some Mental Health Calls

Fearing Lawsuits, El Cajon Police Stopped Responding to Some Mental Health Calls

El Cajon is no longer automatically sending police officers to some mental health crisis calls.  In May, the city’s police department quietly halted automatic deployments when someone threatens to harm themselves, if there’s no apparent crime or danger to others. That has meant clinicians from the county’s Mobile Crisis Response and the Psychiatric Emergency Response teams sometimes also didn’t respond to those calls or couldn’t get police suppo…