\u201cWe believe collaboration \u2014 particularly with the county \u2014 not court action, is essential to achieving meaningful and sustainable improvements,\u201d Alcala Wood told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight.<\/p>\n
In their letters, the civil rights attorneys blamed a variety of issues for stymieing efforts to ramp up non-police crisis responses<\/a>, including insufficient funding and a lack of public awareness<\/a>. But they contend addressing these problems is impossible without San Jose\u2019s active participation in the negotiations.<\/p>\n This campaign gained momentum in 2020 amid widespread calls for police reform following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Since then, Santa Clara County has launched a variety of specially trained teams<\/a> capable of providing support specifically tailored to the needs of people in crisis or the throes of drug addiction.<\/p>\n For example, in 2022, at the urging of families<\/a> who have lost loved ones in police shootings, the county launched the Trusted Response Urgent Support Team or TRUST<\/a>. These non-law enforcement mobile crisis units operate throughout the county, with members trained in both first aid and mental health crisis intervention.<\/p>\n Advocates for such an approach have argued that sending armed police officers to the scene of mental health crises often escalates the situation, in many cases leading to deadly altercations.<\/p>\n But critics say so far, this reform campaign has not lived up to its promise.<\/p>\n The civil rights attorneys said a review of last year\u2019s 911 dispatch call data in San Jose found the vast majority of incidents that could have been diverted to a crisis team \u2014 including mental health calls and welfare checks \u2014 still received a police response<\/a>.<\/p>\n Given such findings, De-Bug founder Raj Jayadev<\/a> said San Jose\u2019s efforts to pivot to different forms of crisis response have merely been \u201ccosmetic.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTo truly value non-police crisis response is really a whole re-architecturing of how a city responds to crises right now,\u201d Jayadev told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cIt has to be an entire cultural shift of how a city responds to residents who are in need, and that requires the seriousness that we\u2019re hoping the city would step into.\u201d<\/p>\n The San Jose City Council has repeatedly directed staff to accelerate diversion efforts. However, officials have complained there simply aren\u2019t enough crisis response teams to meet demand, suggesting the city can do little without more support from the county.<\/p>\n \u201c \u2026 The county is the primary provider of health services including behavioral and mental health services for all residents in the city, and the availability and capacity of those services are critical to the city\u2019s ability to do any expansion of non-police response,\u201d Alcala Wood said.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Trust-vehicle-copy-1024x727.png\")
Santa Clara County TRUST, a non-police mobile crisis response team can be reach through its direct line or dispatched through the 988 call center. File photo.<\/p>\n
![\"In-line](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/interactive-321838904008.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n