Bill Text: CT SB00440 | 2017 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: An Act Concerning State And Local Police Handling Of Incidents Involving Individuals Affected With A Mental Illness Or Intellectual Or Developmental Disability.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2017-02-07 - Change of Reference, House to Committee on Public Safety and Security [SB00440 Detail]

Download: Connecticut-2017-SB00440-Introduced.html

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General Assembly		Proposed Bill No. 440
January Session, 2017		LCO No. 2809
		*02809*
Referred to Committee on PUBLIC HEALTH
Introduced by:
SEN. WINFIELD, 10th Dist.

AN ACT CONCERNING STATE AND LOCAL POLICE HANDLING OF INCIDENTS INVOLVING INDIVIDUALS AFFECTED WITH A MENTAL ILLNESS OR INTELLECTUAL OR DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITY.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

That the general statutes be amended to (1) require (A) state and local police training programs to provide not less than two hours of training in the handling of incidents involving individuals affected with a serious mental illness or an intellectual or developmental disability, and (B) state and local police departments to have on-call mental health care providers to provide assistance to such individuals involved in such incidents, (2) establish a task force to study state and local police policies regarding triage patrols and nonlethal methods of subduing individuals affected with a serious mental illness or an intellectual or developmental disability and who are in crisis, (3) require training of state and local police dispatchers regarding how to screen incoming calls involving cases of domestic violence, suicide threats, drug overdoses or other crisis intervention calls, (4) require state and local police departments to accommodate requests for safe shelter, provide access to alcohol or drug detoxification programs without resulting criminal charges and bring those individuals with health-related crises to the nearest emergency department, (5) require state and local police dispatchers to find out if children are present at the location of an emergency before sending police officers to such location in order to allow a mental health care professional to remove the children from such location, (6) prohibit state and local police officers from physically restraining or injuring a parent or caregiver in the presence of minors, (7) subject state and local police officers who use excessive force on individuals affected with a mental illness or intellectual or developmental disability to criminal penalties, (8) subject state and local police officers who kill a child in pursuit of another individual with negligent homicide charges, (9) provide free counseling to surviving victims and immediate family and loved ones of the victims of excessive use of force by state and local police, and (10) require state and local police officers who injure an individual during the course of an arrest to administer first aid to such individual or call for emergency medical assistance for such individual.

Statement of Purpose:

To protect individuals with a mental illness or intellectual or developmental disability in their interactions with state and local police officers.