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Assistant Chief Ricardo Gonzalez and Sgt. Heriberto Avalos of the Laredo Police Department speak during a Laredo Rotary Club meeting Monday, May 18, 2026, at Palenque Grill on San Bernardo Avenue in Laredo, Texas.<\/p>\n
Jose De La Rosa\/Laredo Morning Times<\/p>\n
Assistant Chief Ricardo Gonzalez and Sgt. Heriberto Avalos of the Laredo Police Department speak during a Laredo Rotary Club meeting Monday, May 18, 2026, at Palenque Grill on San Bernardo Avenue in Laredo, Texas.<\/p>\n
Jose De La Rosa\/Laredo Morning Times<\/p>\n
As mental health crises continue rising in Laredo, police officers are increasingly filling roles traditionally handled by psychiatric facilities, clinicians and social workers \u2014 exposing what officials describe as major gaps in the local behavioral health system.<\/p>\n
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\u201cOur city currently does not have the capabilities to fully treat a lot of these cases. There are a lot of gaps,\u201d Assistant Chief Ricardo Gonzalez said during a Laredo Rotary Club meeting. \u201cIt\u2019s unfair that for a city our size \u2014 where we\u2019re really good at what we do but still have certain needs \u2014 we\u2019re not getting that support.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The system now leaves the police department handling situations that extend beyond traditional law enforcement, particularly once a mental health crisis escalates to the point of an emergency detention. While LPD works alongside agencies such as Border Region Behavioral Health Center and the 988 crisis line, officers often become the primary responders once a crisis can no longer be managed voluntarily.<\/p>\n
Under Texas law, peace officers can place someone under an emergency mental health detention if they believe the person poses an immediate danger to themselves or others. Once that happens, Laredo police officers become responsible for a broader process involving hospital evaluations, placement searches and long-distance transports because the city does not have a dedicated mental health hospital.<\/p>\n
Because of the city\u2019s limited psychiatric infrastructure, patients are frequently transported to facilities in San Antonio or the Rio Grande Valley. Cases involving additional medical conditions can require placement even farther away, sometimes up to 350 miles from Laredo, while officers may handle multiple long-distance mental health transports in a single day. Gonzalez said as many as five patients can require out-of-town transport in a single day.<\/p>\n
The burden further increased in recent months after changes in state law shifted responsibility for mental health transports to the agency initiating the emergency detention. In Laredo, that is often the police department. Previously, the Webb County Sheriff\u2019s Office handled many of the long-distance transfers through a dedicated transport team, but LPD is now absorbing that workload while continuing its regular policing duties.<\/p>\n
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The entire process, from lengthy hospital evaluations to out-of-town transports, can sideline officers for hours at a time, leaving fewer officers available to patrol the streets and respond to calls. Gonzalez said the strain also generates overtime costs, fuel expenses, additional wear on department vehicles and other unexpected expenses.<\/p>\n
Gonzalez said those costs have become harder to absorb amid recent funding cuts that have placed additional pressure on an already strained department in a medically underserved community, especially when it comes to mental health.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re being loud,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re having conversations with our representatives to make sure we get that funding down here because the already limited funding that existed is no longer there.\u201d<\/p>\n
As hospital placement and transport delays stretch for hours, officers have at times personally paid for meals for patients who had gone most of the day without eating, Gonzalez said.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhen we don\u2019t budget for meals, the guys have been kind enough that when, for whatever reason, a patient hasn\u2019t been fed since the morning and it\u2019s already late in the day, they\u2019re buying meals for patients out of pocket,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not incurring those expenses as a department. They are.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Gonzalez said the department is now reassessing its operations and resources to better manage the growing demands tied to mental health response despite ongoing funding challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s our reality, but we can no longer just say we don\u2019t have the money and not do anything about it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to look at our operations and restructure. We\u2019re trying to see how we can better manage resources to be able to do yet another thing that\u2019s asked for us to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the changes LPD is pushing for is a broader co-response model that Gonzalez said departments across Texas have increasingly adopted, pairing officers with EMS personnel, clinicians and social workers during behavioral health calls.<\/p>\n
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Under that approach, officers would initially secure scenes before medical and behavioral health professionals take leading roles in crisis intervention and stabilization.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of the best models, one of the best practices,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want these teams with more than just officers. We\u2019ll be in the forefront, make sure everyone is safe, and then we take the backseat and their assistance comes to the front.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, while the city waits for additional funding \u2014 which Gonzalez said could still take years to translate into expanded mental health infrastructure even if approved today \u2014 the larger question is whether police departments like\u00a0LPD should continue serving as the community\u2019s primary behavioral health response system at all.<\/p>\n
Officers, Gonzalez argued, are trained primarily for law enforcement rather than long-term mental health intervention. He warned that relying too heavily on police response could discourage people in crisis from seeking help if mental health emergencies become too closely associated with law enforcement intervention.<\/p>\n
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\u201cAll we have is people in uniform, and the only way they\u2019re trained to restrain someone is with handcuffs, and the only transport vehicles we have are average caged vehicles,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cSo when someone has a crisis, we\u2019re treating them like criminals. Is that the best we can do for our community? I say no.\u201d<\/p>\n