As a former A-10 pilot, retired Air Force Col. Martha McSally isn’t used to riding shotgun.
The Republican congresswoman rode with the Pima County sheriff’s deputies on Thursday night and got a front-row seat to how often a mental illness plays a role in 911 calls. McSally is co-sponsoring legislation that could provide funding for extra mental health services in the region.
The several hours she spent on patrol was no different, with McSally saying she witnessed how law enforcement personnel are usually the first on the scene when people are in the midst of a mental health crisis.
“We have a lot of mentally ill people committing low-scale crimes that are not getting the treatment they need so they are behind bars,” McSally said. “I saw firsthand the heart-breaking challenges families have when they’re crying out for help and trying to get help for a loved one as they increasingly see a person — like this case last night — get worse.”
McSally has co-sponsored legislation in the House that mirrors a Senate bill written by Sen. John Cornyn of Texas. The legislation, she says, could help locally with the funding problems of not having enough beds to treat someone with mental illness, with those needing acute care finding themselves in the Pima County jail.
“It often elevates to the point that law enforcement shows up, when what we really need is health care professionals to be addressing this,” she said.
While the Congressional Budget Office has not rated the proposal, McSally believes the legislation could help with funding to expand facilities to treat those with an underlying mental illness. Additionally, she said it could pay for grants to give law enforcement more in-depth training to deal with mentally ill people on emergency calls.
Sheriff Chris Nanos acknowledges he runs the largest — albeit makeshift — mental health facility in Southern Arizona.
Official figures from the county suggest roughly 70 percent of those behind bars in the jail have substance abuse problems, suffer from a mental illness, or have a combination of the two.
Nanos said he believes the number is even higher. “I would say it is probably 80 or 90 percent,” he said.
Last year, the agency responded to 131,863 emergency calls, with 7,794 calls being tied to a mental illness.
While McSally has high praise for the efforts already underway in Southern Arizona, Nanos said the system is broken.
A recent incident, he says, demonstrates the complex, multi-jurisdictional problem faced by law enforcement and mental health advocates.
He said a man shot by one of his deputies in early January had been released from a health care clinic even though he had demonstrated some mental health issues after stabbing himself in the neck a few days earlier.
McSally is confident her legislation has a good chance of passing in both chambers, saying she has bipartisan co-sponsors in the House. Additionally, she has spoken to the Republican leadership specifically about her legislation.
