Good morning, everyone.

I'm going to call this meeting to order.

This is Alameda County Board of Supervisors Public Protection Committee meeting for Thursday, September 25th.

Can we please start with the roll call?

Supervisor Miley, excuse.

Supervisor Marquez.

Present.

Thank you.

And if the clerk could please make the announcement how to participate in public comment at the end of our two informational items, either in person or remotely.

For in-person participation, the meeting site is open to the public.

If you'd like to speak on an item, please fill out a speaker's card in the front of the room and hand it to the clerk for remote participation.

You can use the raise your hand function.

And we'll have comment after both items.

No, actually, let me readdress that.

We'll actually take public comment after item number one is heard and then public item public comment after item number two, and then general public comments at the end for items not on the agenda.

Thank you for asking for that clarification.

I want to welcome everyone and good morning.

Thank you for joining us today.

I want to begin by recognizing the Alameda County Probation Department, which will present first with updates on juvenile justice programming, behavioral health care services, clinical treatment, and the use of OC spray.

Supporting our most at-risk youth is one of my top priorities and essential to promoting public safety.

That is why, since August of last year, I have convened quarterly meetings to specifically focus on behavioral health care services at the county's juvenile justice center.

These convenings bring together multiple justice stakeholders, including the Superior Court, the Office of the District Attorney, and Public Defender, AC Health, including the Behavioral Health Department, Alameda County Office of Education, and Community Partners to strengthen cross-agency coordination and services for young people.

These are critical areas of work, and I want to thank probation staff for their efforts to ensure that youth and our care receive the attention and support they need.

I also want to acknowledge one of our young people at JJC who is attending UC Berkeley and planning to apply to law school.

Javier's story is a reminder that young people not only matter, but have incredible gifts to offer our community that can only be realized when we choose to believe and invest in their future.

Today's agenda will also feature a presentation from the Alameda County Sheriff's Office to review their less lethal and chemical agent policies.

This is a follow-up to a request I made as a previous public protection committee meeting.

Today's presentation will help inform the public about how these safety policies are applied and monitored.

As the chair of the public protection committee, I remain committed to transparency, accountability, and public participation in these important county policy discussions.

Thank you again to all our presenters and attendees for their contributions and partnership around today's dialogue.

We're gonna go ahead and start with item number one.

This is an informational item and update on the county's juvenile facilities programming.

I'd like to welcome first assistant chief probation officer Shauna Connor.

Welcome.

And later we will be hearing from Deputy Chief Probation Officer William Mymore for Juvenile Facilities, Lucia Moritz, Executive Director for Alameda County Office of Education's Court and Community School Programs, Alameda County Behavioral Health Department's Forensic Diversion and Reentry Services Director Juan Taisan and Juvenile Justice Center Medical Director Dr.

Javi Ross from UCSF Children's Hospital in Oakland.

Welcome, Chief Probation Officer Shauna Connor.

Good morning, Supervisor Marquez, and thank you for the opportunity to present today.

My name is Shauna Connor, Assistant Chief Probation Officer with the Alameda County Probation Department, and I'm joined by my colleagues from Probation Behavioral Health, UCSF Binioff Children's Hospital Oakland, and the Alameda County Office of Education.

Here's a quick roadmap of today's presentation.

First, we'll review the demographics of youth in our care, giving some context about who we serve.

Second, the partner agencies will share updates on the programs and services provided, showing the breadth of support available to youth and their families.

Finally, we'll provide an overview of our efforts to reduce our reliance on OC spray, including the data and strategies we're implementing to reinforce safety and accountability.

So this data, this slide represents a snapshot of our population in facilities as of August 31st, 2025.

Between the JJC and Camp Sweeney, there were 60 youth in custody.

Of note, 67 youth were in the predisposition phase, and 33% were in the post disposition programming, which is Camp or SecureTrack.

The population is predominantly male.

Oakland youth account for 42% of the population, followed by out of county youth at 25%.

62% of youth are African American, followed by Hispanic or Latinx youth at 27%.

And in terms of age of youth in the facility, we are skewing older.

The average age is 17.4, and 48% of the population is 18 and over.

This data covers from April 2024 when we last appeared before this body to August 31st, 2025.

During the reporting period, on average, we had 45 new admission admissions each month, a total of 769 admissions for the period, containing 517 distinct youth.

Our average population over the 17th month period was 66 youth with significant peaks in the summertime.

Most of the youth were in juvenile hall, with our camp having an average population of seven youth.

70% of our youth were booked into juvenile hall on a 707B offense.

These are offenses that represent some level of serious violence towards another person.

Based on the snapshot of our population on August the 31st, 40% of youth were either booked in or had a sustained petition for murder, followed by robbery at 18% and carjacking at 13%.

Lastly, the average length of stay of youth for pre dispos the average length of stay for predisposition youth is 179 days.

So the last time we were before you, Chief Ford presented his vision for juvenile facilities.

Since that time, we've worked diligently to implement that vision.

So starting with the implementation of the integrated care model, integrated care means a unified approach across all of the system partners and CBOs.

This is where all the agencies align around shared goals and case plans for youth.

We've already launched key elements of this model.

CBO partners are embedded directly in the hall and camp with dedicated office space at the Juvenile Justice Center.

The board recently approved a contract with the Alameda County Office of Education, positioning them as the liaison and coordinator for education and career technical programming for facilities youth.

We hold regular collaborative meetings to align on program creation, expansion, and exchange of client information.

Each partner agency serves as a subject matter expert in their area.

Even if probation is funding those projects, this ensures decisions are made by those that are closest to the work.

This model reduces silos, strengthens coordination, and ensures youth receive services from the right providers at the right time.

At the last presentation in April of last year, Chief Ford identified significant gaps in aftercare supports for youth returning to the community.

In March 2025, the board approved a $900,000 standard services agreement with safe passages to provide system navigation, mentorship, life planning, and barrier removal services for youth transitioning from the juvenile justice center.

And so that project will support youth for up to one year after they transition from the juvenile justice center, and it provides close to $300,000 worth of barrier removal and housing supports.

Family engagement remains a core component of services of the Juvenile Justice Center.

We host family fun nights, celebrate academic achievements, and coordinate special visits with support from behavior health as needed.

The Safe Patrick's contract also includes family counseling and reunification services.

We've recently partnered with DMV to ensure youth can obtain California IDs at juvenile hall before release, removing barriers to employment, school enrollment, and service access.

We are also embedding re-entry preparation earlier in the process.

Firm roots youth in juvenile hall are now participating in outings and community activities prior to stepping down.

This is a model that has long existed at Camp Sweeney.

And while forum metrics are still in development, these initiatives are designed to strengthen community connections, reduce barriers, and provide coordinated supports for families and youth during the reentry process.

With respect to our state regulatory compliance with state regulatory standards, probation is committed to meeting and exceeding state requirements.

Under Title 15 BSCC regulations and PRIA standards.

In August of 2025, the Juvenile Justice Center passed its BSCC inspection without a corrective action plan, a feat not accomplished in many years.

Inspectors specifically acknowledge the strength of the collaboration at the JJC in their exit briefing.

Beyond compliance, we are investing in improvements such as expanded outdoor recreation, modernized meal services, and enhanced programming.

Through internal quality assurance and collaboration with oversight bodies, we proactively identify and resolve issues before they become compliance issues.

We've also newly invested in relaunching three core programs to expand our evidence-based programming choices, interactive journaling, and aggression replacement training, which is known as art.

In prior years, staffing shortages and turnover limited program consistency.

And so to address this, we engaged our labor unions, restructured schedules, set a firm calendar, and partnered with CBOs and non-sworn staff to ensure classes are delivered reliably.

Evidence-based programs are essential because they target dynamic risk, which is the changeable behaviors and attitudes that are tied most to re-offending.

This directly impacts recidivism reduction.

And lastly, we have been focused on strategic workforce growth.

It goes beyond adding headcount.

It involves creating specialized roles such as case management positions and clerical support for technology initiatives that enhance service delivery.

Initiatives like the Professional Development Academy and our leadership institute strengthen internal capacity and ensure staff are equipped with modern skills and leadership tools.

A stable, consistent workforce is critical for us in juvenile facilities to maintain safety but also build trust and ensure program continuity.

Over the past year, we've increased hiring by 25% and effectively maintain our workforce by 95%, 95% of our workforce.

I'll now turn it over to DCPO William Maimore to go over JJC programming.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Good morning.

Since our last presentation at the board, the probation department has made significant investments in programming in areas such as educational and career and technical training, pro-social enrichment, recreation and medical mental health services, totaling $3.5 million.

A few of these highlights include our partnership with ACOE that provides educational services for our youth in custody.

In partnership with our tablet program, one of the things that we are doing now is to allow youth to conduct their classwork outside of the classroom and their homework outside of the classroom, which provides them the time and space to be able to do that work on their tablets.

And with that, we have noticed a significant increase in the credit outcomes for these youth.

With this partnership, our last point in time count had half of our population earning the credits required to graduate.

And some of those youth, as you have mentioned, Supervisor Marquez moving on to institutions of higher education.

And I'll let our ACOE partners speak more to that.

Regarding our medical and mental health services, in addition to Alameda County Behavioral Health, probation department has invested heavily in specialized clinical services to support the unique needs of our youth, including sex offender counseling programs, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, which is a psychotherapy, which is which addresses traumatic experiences and distressing experiences.

And as we know, a lot of our youth do suffer from traumatic experiences, and so to be able to address that on the front end will help them to be able to expand on the services that are provided to them in the future.

And finally, we also offer and partner with OTTP to also address trauma along with learning disabilities, social emotional difficulties, and our developmental delays.

Our path forward is guided by a vision to build on the work already underway and strengthen our internal capacity to meet the evolving needs of our youth and their families and enhance the re-entry process, ultimately positioning these youth and families for long-term success.

Some of the areas we are focusing on as assistant chief Connor brought up, our family focused service and family-focused engagement.

We currently provide family engagement a few days a week.

We will be expanding that family engagement and providing more enriching activities, such as taking youth and families to outdoor activities, cooking together, and doing stargazing.

We will be having parenting coaches on our staff to support families and youth while they're in the facility, and this will allow for additional support such as on-site parenting, skill building groups, cognitive behavioral interventions, and we are looking to partner with community-based providers to continue this work outside of the facilities to again enhance the reentry process for youth when they eventually return home.

We're increasing our evidence-based programs, including the crossroads curriculum, which is an evidence-based program targeting criminogenic needs and expanding our substance abuse treatment services within the juvenile facilities.

Staff development.

Without our staff, all of this would not be possible.

Day in and day out, they're working tirelessly to move our vision forward and to serve our youth.

And so I just want to take a moment to thank them for that.

We've recently hired a permanent re-entry services coordinator to coordinate the numerous service and service providers that enter our juvenile facilities and provide the most efficient services to our youth.

We currently have plans to enhance our EBP programming through staff and to have our staff train on evidence-based programming, and what this does is it allows our staff to continue to provide services to youth while our CBOs are not within the facilities, and to continue to provide that reinforcement on what they've learned within those programs.

Our life skills and vocational programming, as mentioned previously, our career technical education program has been going for over a year now.

In addition, we are looking at adding a forklift certification program as well as an auto-body apprenticeship, which would be off-site.

For our life skills programming, we're looking at including a financial literacy program to help youth prepare to be self-sufficient.

Again, as assistant chief Connor brought up, we do have a partnership with the DMV, and we will be expanding that so that youth can get identification cards or and or take their driving tests.

And then we will continue to provide seamless re-entry support.

So that will help provide youth that re-entry connection.

And with this service array, I believe that we will be addressing the critical component of the rehabilitative process, which is supporting youth on that next step of reentry back into the community.

And I'll turn it over to Juan Taizan.

Thank you.

Good morning, welcome.

Good morning, Supervisor Marquez.

My name is Juan Daysan.

I'm the director of the forensic diversion and reentry services system of care for Alameda County Behavioral Health, and here to talk about our guidance clinic, behavioral health department guidance clinic updates.

For the last 30 years, Behavioral health department has been the embedded behavioral health provider for youth who are detained at the juvenile justice center.

We served youth at the old juvenile hall and with the building of the new juvenile justice center, have dedicated office space in what we call the guidance clinic, and that's what I'll refer to throughout the presentation.

The guidance clinic is made up of staff of behavioral health clinicians, a behavioral health manager, juvenile justice health services director who really serves as a liaison between probation and our various partners, as well as the guidance clinic, and more recently, behavioral health supervisors, which I'll discuss in some of our staffing updates.

We are committed to expanding the role.

The behavioral health department is committed to expanding the role of the guidance clinic and really improving interagency coordination and collaboration so that we're good partners and collaborative partners, not only with the youth but with the other agencies in the facility and families as well as they play a critical role in the healing process of many of our youth.

As you mentioned, Supervisor Marquez, in August of 2024, we partnered with your office, with our probation partners and other stakeholders and really looking at improving the quality of the services and enhancing the staffing at the guidance clinic, and that's what I will be speaking to today.

We really are focused on a new model and a new vision for the guidance clinic, and that model centers around these three critical components, system collaboration, as I've mentioned several times already, an enhanced in custody treatment services focused on more therapeutic services and crisis intervention, as well as care coordination and really linking our youth and families to services after they're released, but really starting that work during the detention process.

In terms of system collaboration, some efforts that I want to recognize here that our guidance clinic leadership have really led over the last several months, really the last year.

We've reinitiated our behavioral health training.

This really is an opportunity, we call it our brown bag series, an opportunity for our partners to come together, learn about behavioral health services, learn about how trauma impacts our youth and how we can better serve them.

We've had several trainings for our partners around the use of psychotropic medication for our youth, substance use supports for our youth, and then a larger discussions around supports for youth who are going to placement.

So really excited that we've restarted that training series and are hosting that monthly.

We've been dedicated to our CalAIM initiative.

CalIM is the California Advancing and Innovating Medical State requirement that we have started implementing and planning for planning for and implementing at the guidance clinic.

Really looks at how we partner with probation and with our other community partners to ensure that youth who are detained have continuity of care and services as they are re-entering the community.

With the support of the board, we've been able to expand the medical services at the JJC.

Currently, the medical services are provided by UCSF Children's Hospital Oakland.

We were able to expand that contract to $8.8 million, really with a focus on increasing the staffing for the juvenile justice medical services so that they can maintain 24-7 care, but also focus on some of the critical elements that the medical services have to focus on in terms of CalAIM as well.

And then in regards to access, we had heard a lot from our stakeholders, particularly the courts and the public defender's office, and needing an improved referral process so that youth who are in crisis are getting support and getting seen more quickly and more rapidly.

And so we actually rolled out an updated referral process, did some training for our court partners so that we now have a improved streamline process for referrals and youth are being seen much more quickly and being served on the units, the housing units within the JJC.

In terms of staffing and clinical services, I do think it's important to mention that what we've seen over the last few decades is a move from kind of this triage crisis model to more a therapeutic model and really supporting youth who are being detained for longer periods of time so that they have a treatment plan that's built out and they have a re-entry plan that really supports when they're back in the community.

To this effort, we've increased our staffing for the guidance clinic.

Over the last year, we've increased the staffing to six FTE, the bulk of that being behavioral health clinicians who work on the units.

So the current team has a staff of 12 FTE, and we have three vacant positions that we are currently hiring.

The other thing that we're able to do in expanding our services at the guidance clinic is we've added two behavioral health clinical supervisors.

Those supervisors are able to really work with the clinicians on the units, focus on some of the treatment planning, focus on the quality of the work, and then really help bridge the training that we're providing to our staff and the direct service and support they're providing to our clients.

Increased staffing has allowed us to increase our coverage.

So we currently have clinicians on site at the guidance clinic or the JJC from 8 30 to 8 p.m.

Sunday through Friday, as you see there, and then 9 a.m.

to 6 30 on Saturdays.

As we continue to hire the additional clinicians, we will increase the Saturday coverage as well.

And our goal is to also increase our crisis response after hours coverage.

That's something we will be working on.

As I mentioned, as we look more towards the therapeutic model for our youth, we really will focus on enhanced treatment.

We have a consulting psychologist who's also been working with our team around evidence-based practices, treatment planning, crisis interventions.

We'll look to continue to expand our trauma focused groups and expansion of groups across the board for youth, both in the JJC as well as camp.

One thing that we've noticed recently, we started looking at data of youth and as part of our quality improvement effort.

And we're noticing that a lot of the youth who are being detained, we're not engaging with their behavioral health providers in the community for the last six months prior to their detention.

And so we flagged that, and what we've what we are doing is reaching out as we implement a new intake process, behavioral health assessment.

We're going to be reaching out to those providers when those youth are detained to see how we can re-establish those behavioral health linkages and really start re-entry planning from the beginning.

We also want to hear from the youth on why they were not engaging with those providers and see if uh maybe perhaps the provider was not a good fit or the youth required a higher level of care.

So for us, re-entry planning as we roll out this enhanced treatment model, we'll start at the beginning with improved intake, um, improved communication with providers in the community.

We also do a lot of work around supporting with placement, not only with the clinicians at the guidance clinic, but also in our department, our child and young adult system of care supports probation for and youth who may need to go to therapeutic treatments after their detention.

Our department plays a large role in that and really supporting and consulting with probation and identifying and contracting with those placements.

And then one of the areas we will be bolstering is our post-release follow-up.

When youth are released, making sure that they make contact with a provider, they keep that initial appointment.

A lot of this is within CalAim, and so we will make sure that we are following up and helping youth navigate the system.

In terms of next steps, over the next 12 months, you know, we we continue to focus on this improved this quality improvement for the guidance clinic.

We will continue to hire new staff.

We really are looking for staff who can fill those critical gaps in coverage.

Makes it a little bit more difficult, but uh we will continue our recruitment efforts.

Uh we will fully implement that CalAM process.

So again, uh, not just the intake but also the treatment planning, secondary assessments, and then re-entry support that we provide to youth.

Um, continue to build out this therapeutic support model that I've discussed so that clinicians are spending their times on the housing units, providing consultation to probation staff, and seeing youth on a day-to-day basis, maintaining their schedules and providing these interventions and treatments to our youth.

And then lastly, we continue to focus on uh evidence-based practices.

Um, recently sending last year, we sent our staff to trauma focused cognitive behavioral therapy.

We have a manager and a supervisor currently at some evidence-based practice training with the hope that they will bring that learning back to our staff and continue to increase the capacity of our staff.

And with that, I will turn it over to Dr.

Jave Ross, who is actually online and will be presenting her slides online.

Thank you so much.

Welcome, Doctor.

Hi there, can you hear me okay?

Yes, we can.

Awesome.

And I'm sorry, I don't know how to get my camera on, so I apologize for not showing my face.

But I'm Jave Ross.

I am a pediatrician at Children's Hospital in Oakland, UCSF Benny Off Children's Hospital in Oakland.

I've been working at the Alamity County Juvenile Justice Center on and off since 2014.

But I've been in this role as the medical director since March of 2020, which is a very poignant time in my memory.

So I'm happy to be here to share a little bit about what we do.

You can do the next slide.

Thank you.

So a little bit about who we are.

So our medical unit is staffed by the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland Medical Staff, and it's a team that is compromised of about four doctors.

We just got a new pediatrician to join our group this year, who we're really excited about.

So four pediatricians.

We have a dentist who's been on staff as long as our contract has been in existence, and then several nurses of different levels and different levels of credentialing, a nurse manager as well as a discharge referral coordinator, and many of whom have also been part of our medical staff there for many, many years.

So we children's hospital won the bid for the contract to provide medical services at the JJC back in 2006.

I believe it was one of my one of my most esteemed mentors, Dr.

Barbara Staggers, worked with Alex Bricks Briscoe when the new building was built in 2006.

And at that time, there was a commitment made to provide high-quality pediatric and young adult care, and that's something that we hold on to to this day.

So I'm very proud to be able to continue to carry that torch for Dr.

Stagger's.

And so we take this as an opportunity to be able to remove barriers to health equity and really make a difference in their understanding and abilities to advocate for themselves and for their families in the medical arena.

So our approach to treatment of our youth is that they're patients first and not detainees, and we want to make sure that they see that, that they see us, that they see themselves through that same lens, that they are human and they deserve good care, and we want to make sure that they get wraparound care because we know that even if we're just addressing their medical issue, that it takes so much more for them to be successful and then for them to be healthy, and however they define that for themselves, is an important piece to ensure that they do not end up back in that facility.

So our goal is to make sure that they have everything that they need to avoid recidivism.

So the services we provide, we provide comprehensive pediatric and young young adult primary care services.

All four of the pediatricians that work there are board-certified pediatricians, and we also all partake in adolescent health care outside of the facility.

So we work in children's hospital, has three teen clinic sites, two of them are school-based sites.

One is located in East Oakland, the other is in West Oakland, and three of the four of us work at those school-based health centers in addition to at the JJC.

We are guided by the Title 15 state correctional guidelines.

And so we ensure that all our youth who are new to the facility receive a history and physical within 96 hours of their intake.

And if they've been to the facility within the past year, then we check in with them and do a chart review and a health check, but we just make sure that everyone in the past year has had an updated history and physical.

We also provide routine screenings and health surveillance.

We do a lot of STD, STI screenings and treatment, a lot of reproductive health care and preventative health care.

We manage and address their acute and chronic medical conditions.

And one thing I'd like to call out is that in my tenure at the JJC for over 10, you know, actually, yeah, close to over 10 years now at this point, what I've been able to witness is how diagnoses have changed and evolved, particularly over the past, I would say five years, though we're seeing less total number in our youth, which is excellent.

What we are seeing is the most impacted socially and medically.

And so the youth that we're serving do have some of the most severe chronic diseases.

And they're coming in in ways that you know I hadn't seen you know five or 10 years ago, more impacted by gun violence, coming in with significant trauma.

So we're seeing higher acuity patients right now.

We also offer dental and optometry services.

Like I mentioned, we have a dentist on our staff who's been around for a couple of decades now and is very committed to providing good dental care to our children who are to our patients, excuse me, who oftentimes haven't been to a dentist in many years.

And then we were able to partner with an optometry van through BACS, and they come and make optometry visits to the facility once a month.

We partner with our psychiatrist, child and adolescent psychiatrists in the guidance clinic, with providing behavioral health care, and we partner with a pharmacy that's out of the state that provides correctional pharmacy services throughout the country, and they have been providing services for us for many, many years.

We provide substance use disorder screening, treatment, and community referrals, and I will touch on this a little bit more in depth in the next slide.

And then we collaborate with all of our partners in the facility that have already had an opportunity to share their great work, and we really lean in on these partnerships because as I mentioned, medical is such a small piece really of their success, and we know that in order for them to be healthy, they need their behavioral health, their educational health, and their overall social health and well-being to be addressed and cared for as well.

Next slide.

So I wanted to just highlight some work that my dear colleague, Dr.

Billy Burrow has been able to really focus on the past two years at our facility.

This is actually one of the CalAIM initiatives that is been marked as a high priority in terms of making sure that youth substance use is addressed appropriately, following evidence-based guidelines, and that also not only is it addressed in the facility, but also that they are connected to care and able to maintain successful treatment and management of these uh challenging of this challenging disease because it really is substance use disorder is a disease, so that they are able to maintain a successful uh relationship with substances and and are able to support this as they re-enter the community.

So 60% of youth in custody across the nation are affected by substance use disorder, and this is something that we certainly see in our county and in our facility.

We've been able to partner with the Alameda Health Systems Bridge Clinic, and we've got an amazing relationship in which their addiction medicine fellows are able to come and have their continuity clinic at our facility.

And so we have a substance use disorder clinic where we meet with youth and we really just work on them creating a specialized care plan for each one who would benefit from this.

And then they're able to continue this relationship, this therapeutic relationship, once they enter back into the community and can see the same provider at the bridge clinic at Highland Hospital to maintain their success.

So this is something that we really have tried to ensure that we're following the evidence for.

We know that black and brown youth in particular are some of the most impacted, particularly in our area with substance use disorder, but are the ones who have the least amount of access to the evidence-based life saving treatments for it.

And so we wanted to make sure that we were able to eliminate this barrier for our youth and make sure that they have an equal opportunity to this treatment.

So I'm happy to take any questions whenever time uh allows for that.

And thank you so much.

Thank you, Dr.

Ross.

Good morning, uh Supervisor Marquez.

Uh I am not Lucia Moritz, uh, the executive director at Court and Community Schools.

I am Eric Guthards, the brand new senior chief of schools for Alameda County, opposite of education.

I'm super excited to be here today.

Lucia, unfortunately, is out six, so I'm pensioning for her as I'm learning our programs here.

I'm I'm coming from across the bay of 25 years in San Francisco, but thrilled to be here as the new senior chief.

I'm going to mostly be spoken about our post speaking about our post-secondary program uh today, but but I did want to just highlight that we do have a very um robust secondary school as well for students to access their education on a daily basis under the supervision of um principal Jessica Good.

I've had the opportunity several times to go observe classrooms, and they're amazing.

And I just wanted to take an opportunity to uplift that today this evening will be the Alameda County Office of Education's teacher of the year across the entire county for all of our districts.

It's 18 plus uh our district, which is 19, and one of the teachers from the JJC, Arthur Hoganauer, is actually being uplifted as a teacher of the year.

So I don't want to miss that.

But we have a very innovative um and robust partnership uh around our post-secondary program that I want to go over with you here.

Um you referenced this morning about the the article uh for about a student Javier who is graduating from Berkeley, and that's amazing.

And then as part of this program.

And so we currently have a post-secondary program for our students.

We're realizing that many of our students that are in, and you saw an early slide that said that the average age is 17 and a half.

So many of our students already have diplomas, and so we really want to offer them post-secondary opportunities.

Um, so we have three um ACOE post-secondary program managers, they're literally meeting with students this very moment.

Otherwise, they would have been here as well.

Uh, we have academic coursework support, in-person college classes, which are really proud of, um, that are uh in-person and asynchronous uh through uh Laney and College of Alameda with counseling, um academic counseling support as well.

All of our students have an assigned UC Berkeley tutor through a great partnership with underground scholars.

Our students are able to earn their AA or their ADT, which is their associate's degree, of course, and their BA, as you saw, and expanding their uh connections with career and CTE opportunities, career tech education.

We offer assistance with FAFSA completion of school enrollment and academic advocacy uh at all levels.

We do offer assistance with AB 540, which is um uh California non-residence tuition exemption, and of course the California Dream Act applications as well.

We have Ed Partner weekly collaboration meetings, milestone celebrations for both our K-12 and our college graduates, uh, and we have family college graduations, and we also have our high school graduations as well and our family outreach program.

Uh just some highlights.

Um, currently, we have seven students in dual enrollment uh courses.

We have um 29 students, uh full-time college students at JC JJC or Camp Sweeney.

That's amazing, by the way.

And we have two students currently attending four-year universities full-time off-site.

Our colleges include 27 Laney College students, uh one, as you heard, UC Berkeley, uh CSU uh East Bay, CSU SAC State, and Xavier University as well.

Um, and uh just some more uh details about our partners with Laney Community College through the program called Restoring Our Communities.

Laney College Professors provide in-person classes.

We also have asynchronous courses and dual enrollment opportunities for our students as well.

College of Alameda includes professors providing in-business, in-person business and entrepreneurship courses.

UC Berkeley with the aforementioned underground scholars, academic tutoring for our graduates and dual enrollment students, and uh access to our UC Berkeley ethnic studies class.

Cal State East Bay and SAC State with the partnership through Project Rebound, provide wraparound support for our CSU students, Northern California Teamsters Apprenticeship Training provides at forklift, and we're working on the forklift certification opportunities currently, as I think you heard mentioned earlier.

Um, many volunteers supporting with our college classes, financial aid, enrollment and advocacy, and our Alameda County Office of Probation funds our ACOE's post-secondary team, which we're really appreciative of and grateful for, and providing ongoing staffing to escort our youth as well.

And I believe that is it for me.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for being here.

So when we last appeared before you in 2024, we had partial data for the year.

So now we're able to compare 2023 to 2024, and we've seen this 15% decrease in the OC spray used as a subset of overall use of force.

The data does show seasonal spikes in the summer months, which we will continue to analyze and address.

And then for the current reporting period, OC spray has been deployed, and this reporting period covers from uh April 2024 when we were here last up until August 31st of 2025.

And so for the current reporting period, OC spray has been deployed approximately 29% of the time for all use of force incidents in juvenile hall.

One thing I want to highlight is that we've seen a sustained period of one or no OC spray incidents or deployments in our secure track program, which represents under juvenile hall data, which is here, and then also importantly, Camp Sweeney reported zero use of force or OC spray incidents during the same period, underscoring the effectiveness of smaller program-driven environments.

What we do see is that most OC spray incidents involve predisposition youth, highlighting the challenges of managing higher risk populations prior to court outcomes.

And so we are uh focused on reducing our reliance on OC spray through a number of initiatives.

Uh, we're reinforced reinforcing a culture of safety and accountability through strengthening our policy, oversight and safeguards in just this past August, we implemented a recently negotiated policy that clarifies the use of OC spray further.

OC spray is to be used as a last resort, and it can only be used when the youth present is a soft if or there's a life-threatening resistance.

We ask that our staff or instruct our staff that they have to first use other alternatives, verbal de-escalation and physical strategies unless there is an emergency.

We also outlined that we want to protect vulnerable youth, and so the use of OC spray is prohibited for youth with serious medical conditions, mental health issues, or pregnancy.

And we outlined very clear limits on deployment, and we require immediate notification, and this is for leadership oversight and accountability.

What we do know is that you cannot promise accountability if you don't have strict accountability with the process.

Probation is currently actively reviewing and evaluating use of forced practices, including alternatives to OC spray.

We recently held a series of demos with another chemical agent where we invited labor partners and community stakeholders, and so we're still actively in negotiation negotiations with that.

Excuse me.

A new physical intervention model is being evaluated that builds on existing practices, emphasizes minimal force and strengthens trauma-informed de-escalation strategies, and so that is also under review right now internally.

And so what we do know during this transition is that staff training, coaching, and workforce development remain at the center of this transition.

I do want to highlight that these efforts are not being done in isolation, they are supported by the collaboration with JJC partners, aligning with the broader aligned care frameworks I spoke about earlier.

And that is actually it for this slide.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

So I just want to commend all the presenters.

This is incredible work and significant progress from last year.

So just thank you all for taking a very thoughtful approach with positive outcomes.

Obviously, there's more work to be done, but just really want to uplift everyone that has taken the view of looking at our young people as a whole and making sure we're doing everything we can to support them and to prevent recidivism and making sure that they have the behavioral substance abuse, recreational, educational, just every one of their unmet needs doing our best to address that.

And the presentations today, in my opinion, show significant progress in that direction.

So thank you for that.

Just want to acknowledge that.

I do have lots of questions.

I'm going to try to be concise.

With this with respect to the data and the numbers, there are concerns in the community that with the new DA, that there's been an uptick and charging young people as adults.

Do you have any perspective on that?

I know that's a question more for the DA, but just wanted to kind of get probation's view on that, if that is accurate from your understanding, or if you have any thoughts about that.

So my understanding is we have not had any young person under this DA be transferred to the adult system.

I think the process that's being referred to, I think the community perspective is very important on this matter, but I think that we lost an opportunity at our last commission meeting to really explain what's happening.

The district attorney is utilizing this process to seek a report.

There's a report of rent that probation has to complete that provides very detailed information about the services the youth has access to in the community, the developmental maturity, criminal sophistication, and they cannot get this report unless they request it in this manner.

And so to date, even though there have been requests received from the district attorney's office to initiate this process, we have not had a young person transferred over to the adult system.

What I can say about probation is we have not taken a public position on this policy.

The reason for that is that we are neutral fact finders.

We are officers of the court, and we are actually have a very clear role in this process, but we have to repair that prepare that report and do so from a very objective point of view.

And so, in order for us to take a position one way or the other, it means that we've made a determination before we've even done the work.

And so it would undermine our position with both the community and the court.

Thank you for that background.

A couple of follow-up questions with respect to re-entry coordination.

How far in advance does your team know that a youth is going to be released back into their community, whether it's local or out of state?

How much time do you have?

I just want to make sure that we have enough time to set up the program, the system so they could have this warm handoff, so to speak.

So do we delay that by a few days to ensure that services and programming is in place, or can you just give me a better understanding of that timeline?

Absolutely.

So for our young people that are in our post-disposition programming, we typically have notice of when they're going to go home.

For camp, there's typically our average length of stay is about six months.

And then for young people that are in secure track, they're going for reviews every six months.

And so the court partners are very communicative.

We know exactly what the plans are, and we're able to plan for that population in advance.

For young people that are transitioning out of juvenile hall, and our predisposition youth, we don't always have advanced notice of their planning.

So what we do have is our transition center, and they're actively working with youth from the moment that they come in the door.

And the transition center is comprised of partners from behavior health.

We also have individuals from education and probation is there, and so we're actively getting information, working with families to identify resources.

So if a young person is released without advanced notice, we have something prepared to send them home with.

And then there's if they're placed on probation, there is follow-up from the probation officer.

Okay.

And then I could just speak to my time when I was on Hayward City Council.

Um, there was always an uptick of crime in August.

I don't know if it has to do with the weather.

I I don't know, I'm not a criminologist, but um what are we doing in terms of preventative work?

Like we know the numbers, we know the statistics, the data for the last five, 10 years.

What are we doing to get ahead of those issues to ensure that we're investing in the most impacted communities?

Absolutely.

So I will speak for my positive youth development partners who are not here today, but we make investments in individual communities.

And so one of the funding strategies we have instead of getting one provider to serve the entire county, we have a regional model where we look at certain we look at communities, we set up resource centers, and we have a cadre of services available for that particular community.

So we invest from that perspective to make sure that individuals that are in need of the services don't have to go far to get them.

Okay.

And then are we looking at like the areas with the, I don't want to minimize it, but are we looking at the hot spots, so to speak, like where we see our youth coming from, the specific cities and neighborhoods?

Yes.

So our chief probation officer, along with assistant chief Dante Sarcone are currently uh in collaboration with several community partners on a youth violence initiative that will target um just cases and situations from our most vulnerable communities, um, and so what they do is they do case planning, they identify situations that come up and they reach out and bring in community partners that maybe um have a connection with that young person and maybe can avert violence as it comes up.

Um, so I know that that initiative is in its intimacy phases, and I do believe that that division will be coming before this body to provide a presentation later in the year.

Okay, and the program with safe passages that's relatively new.

I think we just approved that contract in March.

Do we have any success stories?

Do we know if there's been any youth that if there's been any recidivism since that program has started?

So since the program started, we have they've served two youth, and when the program was starting and getting ramped up, we had a young person that hadn't really developed a relationship with them, did recidivate.

And so what they were able to do is kind of wrap themselves around this young person, attend court, help get resources together, help them navigate the court process.

Um, so to your to your point, we have had one youth recidivate, but they hadn't actively really been built the program at the time.

Okay, and that's the program that has like the life coach.

It's really like anything the young person needs that someone's available.

Okay, yes.

So we have young people that are placed outside of the state of California, sometimes for educational reasons, sometimes for safety reasons.

They will travel to wherever that young person is, help them establish themselves in their community, uh, provide barrier removal, help them connect to local services.

Okay.

Um, I was pleased to hear about the screening, the intake process with respect to getting a physical looking at medical, mental health, behavioral substance abuse.

What type of screening exists to assess learning disabilities, developmental, like how do we get that information?

I would turn over to my.

The director on my team is a director of special education, and then she leads a team of resource folks there as well.

Okay, and I have a couple more questions for you, don't sit down.

Um, with respect to all of the young people that are doing amazing work with pursuing higher education, if they're released, what's the coordination and the linkage to ensure that they can continue to be students at those colleges or universities or programs?

Yeah, we're still offering um support in terms of the transition and um advocacy and actually some um program um uh management on our on our end with our ed liaisons as well, and we're actually now working through an idea of of increasing our transition uh supports as well, particularly for post-secondary, but also for students re-entering into uh district programs as schools as well.

Okay, and then um if a kid already has their GAD or uh youth and they choose not to participate in any educational program, there's nothing that is requiring them.

This is all optional, correct?

The court cannot mandate that they pursue additional programming.

I I can't quite answer that.

My understanding is that everybody's involved.

So I'm not I don't know if there's folks that are opting out that I can I can look into for you.

Okay, and then Sean, I do have a couple more questions for you.

Um can you speak to Supervisor McClellan?

I believe that Dr.

Ross wanted to.

Yes, go ahead, Dr.

Ross.

Oh, yes, I just wanted to add in in regards to your question about identifying disabilities, learning disabilities in particular.

I think that's just such a great question.

Um I think one point that we have because we get to see them within the first five days of their intake, we do that thorough history, and we do get you know the educational piece of that, which is either they've not been in school for many months, sometimes longer than that, or they've struggled in school.

We actually asked them, like, do you have an IEP?

Have you ever been assessed?

Have you ever been diagnosed with a learning difference or ADHD?

And so they're very forthcoming usually in those visits.

And what we do, what we're able to do with the information is every week we have what's called a care coordination meeting, and ACOE is on that meeting, is pretty much all of our partners that join.

And so it's so easy for me to tell principal good, you know, I met with this youth from this unit, and I'm really worried they haven't they haven't been to school since eighth grade and they're 15.

And she's like, okay, I'm all over it.

So I think just co collaborating and good communication between partners can really create a good safety net for identifying those things.

Okay, thank you so much, Dr.

Ross.

Um, couple additional questions.

Um the data indicates an increase in the use of OC spray and the use of force incidents in juvenile hall between May and August of 2025.

Um can you walk me through the protocols that are followed during a use of force incident as well as the de-escalation strategies and tools staff are trained to utilize before such measures are employed?

Okay.

So for use of force, there's a continuum, and we um ask our officers to assess the situation initially.

Can you test the mic?

Oh, sorry.

Initially go get look at the situation from the lowest piece of the spectrum.

Are you able to intervene and have conversations and de-escalate the matter?

If it's a safety issue, they will go in with physical intervention and per our policy.

If they're not able to uh you if it's an emergency or they're not able to utilize physical intervention to resolve the situation, they will escalate to OC spray.

Um we did see a spike um during the period in question, specifically this past summer.

Um, and what we what was interesting is that the number of youth that we were intaking during that period on average was about 45 youth um per month, but we were also exiting about 45 to 46 youth per month, and what that shows is how transitional juvenile hall is.

Um the reason why we've been able to get successes with our other programs is it's relationship-based.

Youth are in these programs, they're committed to these programs, and we have significant time to really understand how to best serve them.

What we've been looking at at juvenile hall is just different strategies through our programming, educating staff.

Uh, one of the things that we did, I think towards the end of last year, which we spread out a little bit at the juvenile justice center.

We do see that um when populations in the use, I mean populations in the units go up, situations go up because people are not used to living with 10 to 12 other strangers, right?

And so we spread out in the juvenile justice center to have smaller communities, and we've seen that that worked.

And then you had mentioned exploring um safer chemical deterrence.

Um is it just one specific chemical or what other options are being explored?

Right now we're focused on one, and we're conversation with our labor partners to pursue that.

Okay.

And then um, what are the new physical restraints intervention model is the best being used in other counties?

So we are in the process of exploring um a model that came to our attention that because we have staff of varying sizes and strength levels and experience, and so sometimes um they may not feel confident to intervene physically in a situation because of those uh differences in height and size and things, and so they will go to OC spray.

We found a model that we are exploring.

I don't want to say it publicly because we're actively engaging uh in negotiations, but uh we found that staff and other jurisdictions express that they have confidence in using the tool, and it actually allows for us to maintain the youth in positioning in a safe manner without using wrist locks and control mechanisms.

Okay.

And what's the average size of a housing unit?

Right now, I think that we are between 10 and 11.

Okay.

And then my last question for you, it sounds like a lot is being done around programming and classes.

I know there's new exercise equipment being installed, the gym.

There's just a lot of work being done.

But do we have enough staffing to actually give the young people time to engage in those extracurricular activities?

Uh no, and that's why we are so focused on hiring staff.

If we were just to focus on the staffing model that's required by BSCC, I just need one staff for every 10 youth.

But we've gotten away from just focusing on safety and security.

We want to uh give opportunity around choice.

And so if I have a young one young set of young people that want to go to the music program, another set of young people that want to go to the exercise class, I have to have sufficient staff to run those programs.

And so we're still focused on hiring staff to make it so that we can have almost like a college uh setting in the environment.

Okay, thank you.

Those are all my questions.

I have one um question for Director Tyson.

Um with the recent changes from HR1.

What will be the impact to Cal Aim innovations and implementation for youth and young adults currently in our care at Juvenile Hall and Camp Sweeney?

Are you aware of any information?

Can you repeat the first part of your questions?

The impacts of HR1, the federal bill.

Uh, you know, we have not, I cannot speak to that.

I'd have to come back with any response to that, um, in terms of uh impacts to CalAM.

Um for the guidance clinic specifically, our primary goal is really identifying their behavioral health needs at intake, um, conducting those initial and secondary assessments, the treatment plan, and the reentry plan.

So far, as far as we've heard on various other um Cal Name justice involved, um, learning cohorts and other jurisdictions.

We are we we are not aware of any direct impacts, um, but I can't, I could not currently speak to any departmental impacts.

Okay, um, those are my questions.

Just want to personally thank you for your leadership this last year.

You've done a tremendous work around improving care and services.

So thank you so much.

Uh, we will now open for public comment and then we will move on to item number two.

Um, we're only taking public comment at this time on item number one.

So if you're in person or online and would like to make a public comment on item number one, we'll give one minute, please, and then um we'll move on to item two after public comment.

Caller, you're on the line.

You have one minute, Alison.

Hello, Alison Monroe here.

I'm the family member of somebody who had serious mental illness and whom the county tried to save and could not.

There are many county agencies who have a client population that has a large fraction of people with serious mental illness.

And I'm interested in these different models and different silos.

I know the people who work in these agencies are well intended, but I think there's some inconsistencies and blind spots.

I have been looking at um, you know, announcements of county meetings, agendas for meetings for years, and it seems to me we've been talking since at least January 2022 about getting rid of pepper spray in the juvenile justice facility.

That's three and a half years, and it's a long time to say that you want to get rid of something and you can get rid of something, and yet you can't get rid of it.

They don't use pepper spray in Villa Fairmont.

Which is what we're saying your time is out.

Caller, you're on the line, you have one minute, Jean.

Hi, this is Jean Moses speaking, and um I want to thank the presenters.

This was an amazing set of presentations and gave me a lot of hope.

I also was concerned about something that Supervisor Marquez raised, which is the number of youth that are being reputed to be charged as adults.

I'd be curious as to the number of reports that have been requested.

The distinction that assistant Chief Connor made is very important, and thank you for that.

But I'd like to know how many reports have been requested, and also I'd like to know why the district attorney did not send anybody to this presentation.

It would be appropriate, I think, for somebody from the DA's office to be here.

Thank you.

There are no more speakers for item one.

Okay.

Thank you.

We are now going to move on to item number two.

Um, want to welcome Sergeants Christopher Craiging and Ryan Romerie present.

They're going to present to uh us on updates with respect to Alameda County Sheriff's Office, less lethal and chemical agent policies and training.

Um this is an informational uh item, and just want to thank all of you since this was a request made by this committee um some time ago.

So thank you so much for circling back and providing this information to our community.

Welcome.

Good morning, ma'am.

My name is Sergeant Chris Craig and this is Sergeant Romer over here.

Also, have Lieutenant uh Tom Boyd from the Sheriff's Office.

We all work for the sheriff.

I'm assigned to training right now.

Can I ask you to speak into the mic?

You can adjust it.

Yeah, you could adjust it.

Just want to make sure the people online can hear you.

Can you hear me?

Uh again, my name is Sergeant Chris Cragan.

I'm here with Sergeant Ra Ryan Romerill and Lieutenant Tom Boyd.

We're from the Sheriff's Office.

I'm currently assigned to training, and I'll be presenting on uh less lethal and chemical agency, our agents and the policies and training related to those.

So chemical agents and less lethal systems that we use are all governed by federal law, state law.

There's several straight uh state training requirements uh that govern these uh systems, and then obviously our agency policies.

Uh the manufacturers of these devices also have specific training requirements and certifications that have to be constantly updated.

Um, and then we look at best practices and industry standards, and then we require ongoing training at the sheriff's office on all of these systems on our own, above and beyond all of these other requirements.

Sorry.

Sorry.

All right, so some of the foundational cases that uh surround the use of any of these systems.

Um, I won't break them all down.

I'm uh the board may be familiar with them, um, or up uh in front of you.

These are just some of the more foundational cases again that govern the use of these or that have uh case outcomes that relate to the use of some of these systems.

And then again, as far as these systems and their use, these are some of the penal codes and laws that are related to them when they're used or deployed or uh implemented in an incident.

Speaking uh directly to the board's question about these systems and their uh availability or our policies related to the vulnerable populations and the residents in our county, vulnerable populations uh as our policy defines it is the elderly, the juvenile, pregnant, and then our residents with physical, mental, and developmental disabilities.

So all of these uh vulnerable populations are very concerning for us as law enforcement in general and just as community members.

Um, we all look at these uh just like the previous presentation, these members of our communities as sensitive and needing um special accommodations at times.

Uh so our policy doesn't specifically prohibit the use of any of these systems on these individuals, but it does require that we have ongoing training to train specifically for dealing with these individuals, and I'll be speaking more about that in my presentation, and why that our policy is that way and how our explicit our training is on dealing with these different groups, and how we want to always minimize force, but specifically with these groups, take extra steps and use extra precautions if we have the opportunity to do that.

So, one of the ways we address this in training is a formula that I like to use, and we we uh we incorporate this in all of our perishable skills training or all of our use of force training.

Time plus distance equals options, and I'll kind of move forward and explain what that is.

Each one of these words is carries a lot of weight for us as law enforcement as deputies and law enforcement officers out in the community, and I'll expand on those a little bit as we move forward.

But this is an equation that I reiterate constantly in training, that that's simple that I think our officers can kind of bring to bear when they're under stress or in a very complex, chaotic situation.

So speaking about, so speaking about time, the ability the ability for law enforcement to immediately address and potentially dangerous situations and mitigate future or further danger or harm provides for improved decision making and resource allocation.

The goal is always a peaceful resolution.

That's not always an option for our officers, and I think the community can recognize that.

But ultimately, we want to always be training our officers and our deputies to expand the opportunity for time to be applied.

Barring exit circumstances, deputies will always attempt to increase the time factor to reduce the intensity and pressure of a given scenario.

So if the deputy has more time, they have the ability to make different decisions and hopefully elicit compliance and have some sort of a more preferable outcome.

I'll expand on that a little bit.

Distance.

The ability for law enforcement to contain a problem and address immediate safety concerns allows the subject time to decompress, comprehend, and comply with commands.

So again, both of these are mutually beneficial and not exclusive.

If we can increase the time, we likely can increase the distance.

Sometimes direct proximity, physicalness or physical proximity to a given situation or scenario, but also sometimes just distance in meaning that we can kind of just uh get the subject to decompress from whatever the main issue is if there's no immediate safety concern there, and we can increase time to allow for that to happen.

There's also other things that come into play there that I'll expand on here.

So, barring exigence circumstances, deputies will always attempt to contain a given problem, reduce the intensity and access additional resources.

And I'll expand on what those resources are and what I mean about resources.

So options, the ability for law enforcement to access resources is critical to the successful outcome of a given scenario.

If resources are unsuccessful and danger is increasing or occurring, and force must be applied, options allow for opportunities for the lowest level of force needed to safely resolve the scenario to be implemented.

All resources are intended to encourage a peaceful resolution whenever possible.

But at times we have chaotic situations that are dangerous and somebody may be hurt, another community member, the person hurting themselves, creating a situation that could create danger for the community.

And frankly, law enforcement is there to hopefully stop that from happening as as less as with the lowest level of intrusion possible.

And that's what we train our people to do.

But we need to have options for them to keep that lowest level of intrusion sometimes is still one of these systems that I'll be speaking about here further.

Right.

So my equation again, time plus distance equals options.

Extremely stringent or restrictive policies inhibit or remove law enforcement's ability to apply available options, which may increase the opportunity to contain a given problem and to apply a more appropriate resources.

So again, all the words in the equation are kind of not mutually exclusive.

They all kind of depend on each other.

If we have a little bit more time, we can create a little bit more distance, we can apply more options.

If we do if we're missing one of those things, the deputies are trained to kind of try to increase the opportunity for that to come into play.

We can back away a little bit if we can safely do that.

Then we can apply more time.

It's all situationally dependent, and these things are fluid and and things change and situations rapidly.

But this is a basic equation that we like them to go into situations and have a quick accessible tool to start applying to work through a very complex chaotic situation sometimes.

All right, so some of the options I'm talking about as far as the resources and options that we have here at the sheriff's office, we're very lucky here in Alameda County to have all these options on the board specifically at the sheriff's office.

We have our community assessment and transport team, which are specially trained clinicians and medical professionals that we can call to a scene and apply that to a situation where somebody needs those kind of resources, or it may uh, you know, lower the intensity of a situation with those people being able to be applied.

We have our behavioral health assessment team at Santa Rita jail.

Those are again clinicians and professionally trained people, and there's deputies assigned with them.

Those are applied to situations we have there specific to the detentions and corrections.

We have crisis intervention training, which the sheriff has instituted a policy where all of our staff will be going through crisis intervention training, I think by the end of the year.

We have that coming up and scheduled for our continuing professional education, and we've implemented that into our not a lot of time we have for that.

We've made room for that so that all the deputies will get that, and that's a high level of de-escalation, and then accessing other resources in the community.

Um, we the CIT training usually brings in people from the community, a bunch of different uh resources that we have here in the community, uh, swords to plowshares and a bunch of other AVSC groups that come in, and so the deputies can be more familiarized with accessing those resources and what they have to offer the community.

We have our crisis intervention unit, which are very highly trained negotiators that can sometimes be deployed into a situation to help de-escalate something, contain it and get a uh some sort of compliance.

Another thing the sheriff has mandated is the Joshua's Gift Foundation, which is excellent training that all of our staff has gone through.

Uh very eye-opening presentation that they put on, and our staff has received that very well.

Um, I think that's a great thing where they're uh a foundation that brings in and brings awareness to uh contacts and dealing with uh autistic people in our community.

Uh great training, and our staff is as very well received.

We have our uncrewed aerial vehicle unit, which is more of a tool, but those are specially trained people that can help us keep distance from a problem that may be dangerous that we wouldn't want to insert ourselves in for fear of escalating something or agitating something if we could provide more distance.

And then, of course, we have adult forensic behavioral health again at Santa Rita Jail, which are specially trained clinicians and people like that that can be deployed into these situations, and then the strategic response team also at Santa Rita Jail, special training for these situations, policies and procedures to deal with some of these vulnerable populations that are in custody in our facilities.

There's many more options that we have, but these are kind of the highlights and the bigger ones that we use on a more frequent basis, and that we spend a lot of time training on accessing those.

So I have a video now, and we'll try to pause it in between because there's three or four different small scenarios here that are training scenarios that we put our deputies in, and it's a representation of how we train for some of these things.

It's called reality-based training or RBTs, and basically we try to create a safe training environment where we have role players, sometimes very professional people that come in and perform like a subject in a scenario.

Um, the officers or deputies are given a little bit of information and they're deployed to this scenario and they're supposed to respond and interact with it appropriately.

So the video will have uh subtitles on it and no sound, just so I can kind of explain to you what's happening.

So you can see what the officers are saying there when they contact this subject.

They were dispatched to a disturbance call.

The person is throwing things around, screaming, making noise.

So the officers are using basic officer safety, they're kind of in a specific position related to the suspect.

They don't walk right up close to them, so they can kind of perceive what's happening, and they start communicating and asking questions and trying to elicit responses.

You can see that the subject there is somewhat upset, but not outwardly violent or highly agitated.

So they're trying to use their de-escalation skills here, and these are specific things that we train the deputies for.

So there's terms and questions that we want them to ask to elicit cooperation.

So can you pause it, ma'am?

So you could see there that you may have not noticed, but over in the corner in that scenario, there was a large tool like a sledgehammer leaning against the wall.

So the officers perceive that and tried to use their body positioning, which is part of their training to kind of direct the suspect away from that without some sort of highly confrontational maneuver.

If the subject was going towards that, they would have had limited options there and had to take a different action.

But they were able to intervene there physically and using their communication skills, elicit some compliance and got the person seated, which sometimes in itself can de-escalate a situation.

They didn't command, they didn't order.

You can look at some of the narration there on some of their things.

So these are specific skills and verbal de-escalation that we train the officers on, and we want them to apply and recognize.

So in the scenario you just saw, you could see that they had time to apply those skills.

So moving forward, we have another scenario where the suspect will this one will finish and then another one will play, and you'll see the suspect exhibit some other uh behavior that they have to respond to.

So again, you can see the narration there.

He's empathizing, he's trying to build rapport and try to explain that we have options.

The other officer goes on the radio and asks for some of those resources.

He's asking for the CAT team.

And these are things that our day-to-day deputies do in training.

So our second scenario here, you see the subject's a little more agitated.

Um he's kind of being confrontational right off the bat, balling his fists.

You can see his physical mannerisms.

You can see the physical mannerisms of the deputies there trying to hold their hands up, make some distance.

Hey, just stay back, just calm down.

We're trying to figure out what's going on here.

You can read the narration there.

Um the suspect gets more agitated, he's he kind of starts to challenge them.

They recognize that that weapon's there, and they're trying to get him away from that, but he's starting to challenge them physically.

So the deputy then arms himself with the OC spray, you can pause that, and then has to deploy it because the subjects you know he's in it's an impending attack.

Right.

So that one is where they're using a resource that's on their tool belt, right?

Um, and as we move forward, we'll see some of the other options that we're talking about here that the board had questions about moving forward, ma'am.

So next one again, agitated, um, challenging.

They're trying to reposition, they're trying to get the person to comply.

Uh, they're trying to empathize.

The person just is is explaining a little bit what's happening, but staying agitated.

He's telling them that the officers are challenging.

You can see that the officers are in proper position, they're not posturing, they're not challenging him, they're trying to maintain distance, use their de escalation.

Verbal de escalation is a difficult thing to do.

He sees the weapon, he tells him not to go towards it, he starts to move away because he doesn't want to present some sort of more problem there.

He arms himself with the taser, the suspect tends to tries to attack him, and then he uses a taser, it's effective, and then the other officer goes and affects an arrest.

Moving forward, there's one more scenario here.

Should play, is it not playing that?

Yeah, here we go.

So the officers arrive to the disturbance call, they see the suspects highly agitated and already armed, so they immediately back out, again, applying that time and distance thing.

It will move away from this and give this person some commands.

He asks for resources, which would be our pepper ball launcher there, and then if the suspect comes out and is attacking the officers or someone else, they have to use that force.

So just some examples of how time and distance would be applied, how we encourage it and in how uh the de escalation is utilized when possible.

And then how some of these tools and systems that you're that you're inquiring about are utilized and how we train on them.

Um, and that's just a small snippet of the scenarios.

We incorporate much more into the reability-based training scenarios.

Sometimes the deputies will be dispatched to a detail and it'll be uh a medical assistance, bless you.

It'll be a medical assistance call where they have to utilize their first aid skills on somebody that has a, you know, an injury.

Um, sometimes it's a request for some other assistance.

It's not the call they go to.

So all the time, whenever we're training any of these systems, we always incorporate reality-based training scenarios where there's no force applied and where there's de-escalation opportunities.

Um, so de-escalation in itself, so one of the things we train de-escalation on.

Um, I like to tell all of our deputies that you kind of carry it on your belt like all the other tools.

You can try to use that right off the bat, but it has to be received.

The the thing that I think um many people are misinformed about about de escalation, it is it's a cooperative process.

And we could offer de-escalation all day, but if somebody doesn't want to cooperate with us and continues to do dangerous things, we have to we have limited options there as law enforcement.

Um, and it requires time.

If if time is a factor, if they're inserted into something and time is uh something dangerous is happening immediately, they have to respond.

There is times when they don't have the opportunity to apply de-escalation.

Um, again, it's require it.

We incorporated in all of our training across the board.

So any perishable skill, we discuss it, we train it.

Um, and then obviously annual training, all the deputies undergo specific de-escalation training every year.

All right, and some of the things that you saw displayed there when we're talking about our less lethal systems and some of our chemical agents.

All the deputies are outfitted with standard uh OC spray, and this is what we have.

The range on that's about one to 12 feet.

It's it's really not a distance thing, but um it's usually a pretty quick reaction thing.

Um there's required training.

The duties all the deputies all carry it on their duty belt, um, and then our policies governing that are down below.

Our use of force policies and policy specific to those that agent.

Moving forward, you saw the conduct electronic weapons or tasers as are commonly called, and that's the actual brand that acts on names these items that we carry.

We have uh our deputies are outfitted with the taser 10 and the taser seven.

Um the tasers have different abilities, those two different tasers, and we'll try to uh get the most modern one for the most uh um safest effective usage.

Um so the distance on some of those is four to forty-five feet, which again that distance buys us a lot of time to elicit compliance.

So we want to have more options where we can uh maintain distance and proximity from a problem.

Um the deputies carry them on their duty belt.

There's required training um updates and recertification annually.

Um so that and then again, we go above and beyond the requirements by the manufacturer and the state on this to incorporate reality-based training with our taser training.

Um, the manufacturer and a lot of agencies will just qualify on these tools and systems, and they won't put the deputies in high stress situations where maybe it's appropriate for a second, but then it isn't, and they have to put it away and make a different decision, or they elicit compliance with it or something else.

So we make sure uh that we make our staff go through high stress um reality-based training with all of these tools.

Uh pepper ball uh launcher systems.

So uh it's a distance weapon again, less lethal.

It fires a three-gram like rubberized plastic polymer ball, very low kinetic energy, and it delivers like a powdered OC agent that the brand name is called Pava, I believe.

The kinetic energy on it is very low.

The benefit to this again is distance, and one other benefit to this system is it can be used indirectly.

We don't have to have a direct impact on a suspect or on a subject.

If we wanted aerial deniability, maybe somebody was doing something dangerous over here, but there was a more uh dangerous situation, maybe over here on the right, and we didn't want them to go over there, we could shoot those munitions onto the ground over there and create a cloud and deny that the most people's ability to want to go over there because it's an irritant, right?

Uh so we don't have to directly impact a subject with that, and it gives us a good amount of distance.

And again, the lower kinetic energy, so even if we did have a direct impact, um, it's less likely to be as intrusive as something more powerful.

Uh 40 millimeter less launcher, this is a direct impact uh munition.

Um, five to a hundred feet single shot, uh direct kinetic energy.

Um, and it's in incident-specific deployment.

So the the pepper ball and the 40 millimeter are both specific incident.

It's not um it's not carried regularly by the deputies, and it requires specific training for those deputies that are authorized to use these, and these are usually more prolonged um situations where we have time to access these resources and bring them into play as a deterrent or as a response at a lower level to something that may be very, very dangerous, and that's all I have.

Thank you so much.

Um great presentation.

Have questions and comments.

Thank you for highlighting.

I think it was slide three or four.

All the different services that you utilize specifically around engaging with folks with mental health issues.

Let's see, I guess it's further back than I realized.

Um slide 11.

Um, can you give me a sense of like the CAT team, the behavior health assessment team, crisis intervention?

We have a lot of services, but how long does it take for them to actually appear on the scene?

Does it depend on where you're located in the county?

Just give me a sense of what the response is.

One thing I would say is geography is always a factor.

We have a very large county, we have some very rural areas.

So obviously, if we're way out on Mines Road or something, yes, that would be a delay in those responses, right?

That's one of the benefits to the sheriff having all of our deputies trained in CIT training, so they have some of those skills, not to the level that some of these trained professionals, but a health people have, but that much more to be able to work on their own to maybe in a sense tread water until we can get that resource there.

So it is geography dependent, and it does vary from time to time.

It depends where we are, what day of the week it is, how busy their calls reserve.

It's like any other emergency response.

We don't have them, unfortunately, like fire stations stationed, you know, every half mile all over the county.

It's not, it's not that hard.

Are we looking at data though, like in collaboration with our behavioral health partners, like I'm just gonna give an example?

Unincorporated part of the county.

We know we get so many calls of service.

There's a high percentage, it's someone struggling with mental health issues.

So are we sharing that data so that they know like this is the area they should generally be at?

Do you know if there's that type of level of collaboration?

Are you talking about like for a more effective deployment of that resource?

Like these are our high volume areas.

Should they keep units in that area?

Yeah, I would imagine that's happening.

I can't verify for sure or not.

And if it's not, I can follow up and get you that information.

Sheriff, maybe you have information on that.

Yeah, so we do share information with behavioral health, and you know, when it's when we're talking about like the cat response team, um, they can speak to that too.

I don't think they're here right now, but there's not enough people willing to do that work, and so we don't have 24-7 coverage, and remember it's a very large county, so having that available resource at any given time is not likely.

Um, we do utilize them as much as possible, but there's definitely information that we've shared.

I don't know how often we share it and what specific information we've shared with the CAT team to basically share what we're what our needs are.

So, but it's something we can build on.

Okay, thank you.

And then um really appreciate the partnership Sheriff has and her entire team with Joshua's Gift.

That's uh a nonprofit that my office is also working closely with in district two.

So really glad to hear the training for uh individuals on the spectrum and with neurodiversity.

Um can you speak to how that's been received by your staff?

Is it like an eye-opener?

Like, hadn't factored that in?

Like, can you kind of give me the takeaways for that training?

Cause that's relatively new, is that correct?

Yes, that was uh recently introduced into our continued professional engine uh training.

So that's every two years, all the staff goes through it, so it rotates through.

We have a large staff.

So on that, having a large staff, we have plenty of staff members with autistic family members, or you know, it's touching their lives in some other way, so uh very impactful that way, uh, but nothing but a positive response there, okay.

Um, and it eye-opening as far as uh better skills to have more readily identify these problems because with these vulnerable populations, and I didn't mention that in my presentation, but sometimes it's difficult to identify that someone is a member of one of these populations, very large, a juvenile my size.

We have members of our community that are 16 years old and six feet tall, 250 pounds.

Um so it's hard for our officers to perceive that.

So that part of that training that Joshua's gift training supplied some of those skills to be able to kind of be more inquisitive to identify these vulnerable populations, which was very well received.

Yeah, so I want to add to that too.

Um, it was so well received by staff that after our, I think our first round of training, uh, we had staff members that came forward and presented at one of our uniform committees to adopt an autism patch for the sheriff's office, and we we deployed that um probably six months ago, and they're able to wear it during autism awareness month.

So it's been very well received, not only from the sworn staff that are getting the training, but our professional staff as well.

Great.

Um, and um the simulation you shared was positive.

I'm so I'm sorry, ma'am.

The video was positive.

Um, the de-escalation, the talking, the uh building rapport, talking the individual through the steps of what's happening, um looks good, but obviously that's not reality all the time, right?

So I just want to have a better understanding within your policies, are there any uh rules around what type of language is used?

You know, cussing, calling out people's race, ethnicity, size.

Are there any rules around that?

Because sometimes I've seen in videos in the past, that tends to escalate the situation when someone's not being professional.

So can you speak to whether or not there are any policies around that?

I can speak a little bit to that.

I know the sheriff's expectations very clear.

We are to remain professional, right?

I instill that as a trainer.

Uh all my supervisors, all the people I work with, we don't accept anything but that as a standard.

As far as the policies, the professionalism and professional conduct and acceptable behavior is it's definitely covered in there.

It's definitely reinforced in the the basic rules, the overarching rules that the sheriff lays out as our expectations every year.

And in training, absolutely addressed.

If somebody starts dropping the wrong language, yeah, I mean it's acceptable in high stress.

Some people do that, but I that's where me as a trainer, it's my responsibility and my trainer's responsibility to address that and make sure that that's not continue, and that's not professionally acceptable.

Um, as far as explicit in the policies, again, it would be the professionalism policies.

Um, but we definitely address that in training.

And in my opinion, if we want to change in behavior, training is where we need to change that behavior because sometimes folks are put into situations they've never seen before, it's very stressful.

So if we can emulate that in training and we can see where those inconsistencies are or undesirable performance, um, we can correct that right there, and we can make it very clear.

And I think I do a good job of that.

All the people that train with me do a very good job of reinforcing the sheriff's expectations.

Is that part of the training to speak to someone really foul and inappropriately just to give them that exposure?

Because sometimes you re react because you haven't been exposed to that type of um encounter.

Is that ever part of the training?

Well, yeah, absolutely.

You're just to clarify so that nobody misunderstands you.

You mean our role players?

Yes.

Yes, absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely.

That's that's definitely something we do.

And we even have role players that speak different languages.

Okay.

So I have role players that sometimes the deputy will get dispatched to a detail and this person speaking Chinese.

Well, that's gonna happen.

So you need to figure out what you need to do, access the correct resource.

Okay, are there um any rules around where a taser is held on the belt versus the gun?

Does it depend if you're right-handed, left-handed?

Give me a better understanding of that.

Yeah, absolutely.

So, our our policy is that they must be cross-draw.

So, if the officer is saying right-handed, that would be their dominant hand, they have to carry the taser on the opposite side of their body.

So they have to reach across their body to access it so we don't have any under stress failures, a misunderstanding of one tool from another.

Okay.

Um, let's see, what else?

Oh, what are the rules around the camera?

Um, when does the camera have to be deployed the minute you start interacting with the community member?

What are the rules around the bodyborne camera?

So body worn cameras must be on when they're responding to a detail or going to have contact with a subject in any situation throughout the sheriff's office.

Okay.

Um, and then a couple of there, I should clarify, there are exceptions for, you know, uh informant interviews or confidential or maybe a victim of uh some sort of unfortunate crime that they don't want recorded, and the community does have discretion in those situations, and then the officers do in those very specific situations.

Um, and there are there always two deputy sheriffs that um respond to an incident, or could there just be an incident where there's just one?

No, so absolutely our deputies respond to things as a solo as a sole officer sometimes, and we emulate that in training also.

And sometimes we even emulate training where three or four more deputies showed up.

What are you gonna do here?

So um just to complicate things for them.

Okay.

Um, couple other questions.

What other less lethal munitions or firearms does the sheriff's office have that are not shown in this presentation?

So less lethum munitions.

So in this, I did an overarching for our base staff, right?

Because we do have a tactical unit and we do have specialized teams that have specialized tools.

It would take a long time to go through every single thing, and you already have, in my understanding, the military equipment review that they bring all those equipment and explain what they are and do all those things.

So I didn't want to waste the board's time with all of those specialty tact uh specialized tactical munitions and tactical tools, but they're really a baseline of these with little variants on them.

So is the sheriff's office considering further reducing the number of scattershot or multiple projectile munitions in your inventory because of their built-in risk for indiscriminate injury or harm.

Yes, I think as uh other than for the specialized unit may, but I think as a as a multi-munition, multi-projectile munition, um, we're removing them from our entire inventory, and you'll have that when you have the military equipment review board.

That's my understanding.

Okay, and then how does code 13652 affect the policy for using projectiles and chemical agents in crowd control?

Well, it directs obviously the scale, what you just talked about, the multi-projectile munitions and kind of restricts that, right?

And then it also says for dispersals, we can't use it to disperse people.

So it definitely affects our tactics and approach to crowd control situations, but not um, but not to the point where we don't have the not the multi-projectiles, but chemical agents ready at the ready for maybe a riotous situation or violence and crime occurring.

We need to use those things and to get situations under control that are that dangerous.

But for dispersal, um, we're not using them for those.

So it has affected the tactics a little bit.

And then uh in the scenarios you showed, there was an axe against the wall, there was different variations.

It was on the wall, then he grabbed it.

Um, it was talking at first, and then the deployment of the laser, uh, the taser.

Um, help me understand.

Are there any protocols?

Um, do officers have discretion to deploy what they want, or I'm trying to give an example of let's say someone has a weapon, someone has a knife, someone has a gun.

What are the is there any like standard like you have to deploy whatever tool, or is it just per their discretion?

Right.

So I think what you're asking, and I don't I'm not trying to speak for you here, is is there a strict continuum or like a ladder of force that needs to be applied?

No, there's not, first of all, and then second of all, yes, it is up to the officers' discretion because they may be more proficient in one system than another.

They and and obviously the level of threat perceived sometimes is a factor.

The perception of our deputy or our officer out in the community of what is threatening them is a very important factor, right?

And how threatened they are, what the reality of that is.

We do train for obvious uh, you know, the the guy has a sledgehammer, you need to defend yourself.

What do you think is appropriate?

And then if there's a very inappropriate response, something way over the top, or no, I was just gonna talk it out of his hands as he's hitting me, you know.

Um, we'll address that in training again.

So, thank you.

Sheriff, do you have any closing remarks before we go into public comments?

Thank you for the presentation.

Yes, ma'am.

Great presentation, by the way.

Um, very clearly demonstrated.

I I think that, you know, one thing that I have to say any time that we are presenting on levels of force that we use day to day our folks are encountering very volatile, dynamic situations.

And so you're talking about split-second responses, and so I think that there's definitely a higher level of training that we offer because we understand that.

Um, and then we come to the board to make sure that we're bringing on tools that will make it less likely for either side to be injured.

Um, the taser is a great tool.

ROC is a great tool.

And the one thing too that we train on much more now is compliance moves, where it's not constant physical punching or anything of that nature where both sides are gonna get injured potentially.

It's how do we get gain compliance through like very swift maneuvers and um pain compliance, but not nothing that's too significant or severe.

So they do a great job.

Uh, we've definitely done much more in the arena of crisis intervention and de-escalation.

So we've seen that in the numbers as far as reduction of use of forces in our our agency.

Thank you, Sheriff.

Um, we're now gonna open to public comment.

One minute on informational item number two.

Caller, caller, you're on the line.

You have one minute, John.

Hi, this is John Lindsay Poland.

Um, thank you.

I want to clarify or confirm what I think I just heard, which is that the sheriff's office will be uh eliminating the multi-projectile munitions going forward.

Um I think that's what I heard.

If you could confirm that, uh, that would be a very important step because those are so dangerous.

They're they're indiscriminate and they're in their effect.

Um, and we would applaud it.

The second thing I just wanted to say is that this presentation was only posted yesterday afternoon.

I don't know what goes into the timing of these things, but it is impossible to really review and share with community members who might want to say something about a pre about a topic like this when it is only posted less than 24 hours before the hearing.

Thank you.

Caller, you're on the line.

You have one minute, Alison.

Hello, Alison Monroe again.

I also heard, I think that the multi-projectile weapons, the canisters full of rubber balls and wood baton rounds, that these things are going to be removed from the inventory.

I'm very glad to hear that, because they can't be directed in any kind of person.

They just go out in all directions.

Um, I would I feel a little queasy about all these kind of weapons, tell you the truth, because I foresee the time when the sheriff might be experiencing considering crowd control of a crowd of anti-fascist grandmas.

Tell you the truth, and let's not go there, especially with multi-projectile weapons.

Thank you so much.

I have no other speakers on item two.

And raises just wanted to clarify that these are individuals that still want to speak on item number two.

Okay, we have a few.

You're on the line.

We're on item two.

Hi, I just wanted to speak on the use of um non-lethal force in general.

Um yeah, want to ditto Allison.

Um I just foresee this being a reason to um hypermilitarize the county.

Um, and yeah, I don't think that it's necessary.

Um, I heard you all talk about um de-escalation, and I definitely want to reinforce the need to practice de-escalation and not use uh yeah, weapons that um are non-lethal, even if they are non-lethal.

But yeah, caller, you're on the line.

You have one minute, Becky.

Hello, yeah, this is Becky.

Um, you can see I am with APEN, the Asian Pacific Environmental Network.

Um, I just also wanted to echo what other folks are saying about the weapons.

Um, lethal weapons have been known to cause uh damage and uh have killed folks in the past, um, and just wanted to state yeah, concern and around these weapons.

I'm pro de-escalation and yes, thank you.

I'll leave it at that.

Caller, you're on the line.

You have one minute, Willem.

This is Willem Vendkamp, and I'm a resident of district three, and um just as some previous uh public comments.

It sounds like that you are planning to discontinue these gather shots uh for very good and necessary reasons, and I hope this will be confirmed by you so that we don't have to worry about these indiscriminate uh weapons anymore, neither in the community nor at the jail, which is even more uh traumatic and uh inhumane to use them there.

Thank you very much.

Caller, you're on the line.

You have one minute, Stevie.

Hi, my name is Stevie.

I'm a resident of District Three.

I also wanted to ditto what John said and what I believe Alice said.

Um I am very much pro-de-escalation.

I know the sheriff was talking about processes of de-escalation and how they are training people to be professional and to not escalate with either cursing or um references of race.

However, if we're not doing background checks on how people tend to act in their previous um interactions with people that um do not are not typically in agreement with police force.

Um, I don't think that we can typically just rely on their training to ensure that they meet the ethics of professionalism that's trying to be taught in their training.

So, either way, um I am more I am in um activism of uh de-escalation rather than even non-lethal force since especially these um forms of um cannot be um sent to like one specific person and it could harm crowds of people.

So thank you for your time.

We have no other speakers for item two.

Thank you so much.

I'm gonna ask the sheriff to clarify the statement that was made, please.

Yes, so just to clarify, we are working towards, and I know you know we we've been working with uh John Lindsey, and um I've been stating for several times over that we are looking at alternatives as well as the need for these multi-projectile munitions.

So I'm hopeful that we can have, you know, some individuals who are pleasantly surprised by us moving away from them, but we're working towards it right now.

Uh we're we're moving in the right direction, um, we're assessing the need for it, the use for it, and there is a high potential that we could be removing it.

But I just want to make sure that we're clear that we're still working towards it.

Thank you, Sheriff, for your response and also noting the comment about the presentation being uploaded in advance.

We will do our best to improve that.

Um, I know that's a priority for the community to have the information in advance.

So we're gonna uh close uh public comment on item number two and move on to general public comment.

This is item number three.

Um, this is for items that were not on the agenda, but are under the purview of this committee, and we'll have one minute.

Caller, you're on the line.

We're on public comment.

You have one minute, Kelly.

Hi, one of the items that this is under the purview of this committee is called the emergency medical services, the ambulance contract.

And it supposedly comes with no cost to the county, but the community assessment and transport team that counts the cost of county over a million dollars a year.

And um, just uh a couple of months ago, your board approved a new contract with AMR.

You dumped Falc, you went to AMR for an ambulance contract for five years or more.

Um, and what's interesting is that you you didn't uh you were very careful to say that you're not gonna the county doesn't pay anything.

All the costs are paid by the patients, but you never looked at the cost to the patient, did you?

You never considered that uh Falc increased cost by 14% a year in their contract, and you never considered what are the costs uh that this uh contractor might uh put on the uh patients and insurers.

Thank you.

We have no other speakers for public comment.

Okay, great.

Um, thank you everyone for your engagement today.

Really want to thank the presenters for their thoughtful and well-prepared presentations.

I want to emphasize the critical work being done at the Juvenile Justice Center and reaffirm my commitment to supporting the success of the youth and young adults in our care.

At the same time, it is equally important that we continue to educate and meaningfully engage our community about Alameda County Sheriff's Office policies and practices.

Both efforts supporting our youth and ensuring transparency and public safety are essential to building a stronger, accountable, and effective system.

So thank you everyone for your engagement today.

Just want to note that this committee will be meeting in October, uh, Thursday, October 23rd at 10 30 a.m.

But this upcoming Monday, we have a joint public protection and health committee meeting in this room at 9 30 a.m.

That's Monday, September 29th.

There are two informational items.

The first one is a procurement timeline for the comprehensive medical services at Santa Rita Jail, as well as an update on the medical quality assurance monitoring at Santa Rita Jail.

Those are both informational items.

So most of us here in the room will be back Monday morning at 9 30.

Thank you and have a great day.