SANTA CRUZ—The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a plan to expand the county’s Focused Intervention Team (FIT), which pairs law enforcement officials with behavioral health specialists and other supportive services to address high-frequency criminal offenders.
The program launched on Jan. 28.
Watsonville Police Department has used its own version since 2016, called the CARE unit, which stands for Crisis Assessment Response and Engagement.
Santa Cruz County Sheriff Jim Hart said the FIT program was created to deal with “high risk, high users of the jail and emergency services,” who often act out with violence and scare people.
“This team is focused on a very specific population of people who have caused a lot of problems for a long time,” Hart said.
There are 78 people currently in the program. Nearly all of them are homeless and suffer from drug addiction, said Santa Cruz County Behavioral Health Director Erik Riera.
The goal, Hart said, is to reduce the number of times the subjects are arrested, thus freeing law enforcement officials to handle other issues.
“The goal is to refocus these people into treatment,” he said. “This benefits public safety, and also reduces calls for service.”
The supervisors unanimously approved a proposal to increase mental health specialists’ caseloads from 30 to 40.
They also approved a request to increase clients’ time in the program from 60 to 90 days, which Riera said was designed to give behavioral specialists additional time to address their patients’ needs.
“We believe this will be enough time to link clients to critical resources, including housing, residential substance use and primary care,” Riera said.
By 2021, program organizers aim to decrease arrest rates by 50 percent, increase participation in mental health treatment participation by 20 percent and increase substance use treatment by 20 percent, Hart said.
The FIT program employs three deputies, three behavioral health clinicians and an administrative aid. It is funded through Measure G, the half-percent sales tax measure approved by Santa Cruz County voters in 2018.
The supervisors will hear an update of the program in March 2021.
