S21 21-0193 Subject: Mobile Assistance Community Responders Of Oakland (MACRO) Program
From: Councilmember Kalb And Council President Fortunato Bas
Recommendation: Adopt A Resolution Directing The City Administrator To Explore And Implement Option(s) For Expediting The One-Year Pilot Phase Of The Mobile Assistance Community Responders Of Oakland (MACRO) Program, Including But Not Limited To: (1) Contracting With The County Of Alameda, For County Mental Health Specialists, Civilian Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) And Other County Staff, And/Or Expeditiously Hiring And Training Limited-Duration City Staff; (2) Directing The City Administrator To Return To Council With Monthly Progress Reports, Present To The Council Any Legislation Necessary To Expedite The MACRO Program, Including Staffing And Budgeting For Implementing The Program, After Considering Urban Strategies Council's Recommendations And Receiving Input From Labor Representatives, City Departments, And Community Organizations And Members; (3) Directing The City Administrator To Contract For An Evaluation Of The Initial Phase Of MACRO, (4) Directing The City Administrator To Return By April 20, 2021 With The Appropriate Legislation To Allocate Or Appropriate Funds, For 1.0 Full Time Equivalent Position In The MACRO Program To Manage The Program; And (5) Directing The City Administrator To Return To The Council, After Community Input, With Recommendations For Adding Additional Categories Of Calls For Service After The Initial Phase
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Thank you for all efforts to expedite implementation of MACRO within the Oakland OFD. Having been present at the Police Commission hearing on the unhoused and OPD, in January of 2019, read that report, and then being present at the June 2019 meeting at St. Columba sponsored by the Police Commission, Faith In Action East Bay, Coalition for Police Accountability and council members Kaplan and Gallo, and following the subsequent research and community engagement by Urban Strategies Council, it's clear that MACRO implementation is needed ASAP. The model is clearly defined - and it needs to be framed not simply around "mental health" but an inclusive response to 911 calls for service and assistance that don't involve violence. The "mental health" frame is limiting and hinders the level of interruption of police response that's inappropriate and often harmful which can. be achieved and is needed. The exclusive references to MACRO as a "mental health" unit are confounding. The CAHOOTS model needs to be adapted to Oakland, but it's not simply "mental health." Also, since the actual genesis of MACRO can be traced directly to the Police Commission's hearing on the unhoused, it's problematic to conflate all service calls related to unhoused persons as "mental health" calls. Can we straighten this out? It's not simply a "mental health" response and it's, frankly, reactionary and condescending to continue this formulation.
MACRO is urgently needed in Oakland - city council, we need your dedicated leadership on this issue. A report from the Washington Post found that at least 25% of people killed by police showed signs of mental illness. Additionally, people who are experiencing mental illness or a disability are 16 times more likely to die during police encounters. A culturally responsive and trauma informed mobile response program has the potential to reduce harm, prevent senseless killings by police officers, and support those in crisis to get the help they need. The core of public safety is about meeting the basic needs of community. It is essential for this resolution to be adopted immediately - mental illness is not a crime and the way Oakland currently responds to those in crisis is in fact criminal.
It is essential that we support MACRO to fund and train mental health professionals to respond to mental health crises. This role should not be undertaken by police, who are untrained and disproportionately respond with violence, including lethal violence, when people are in need due to mental health crises, substance abuse, and domestic violence. It is vital that we support this program NOW.
Paired with item 20 which would place MACRO under the Fire Department's jurisdiction, this is a much needed step in reducing police violence in Oakland. We as a city need to reevaluate what our police department is for; they are sent to deal with violent crimes less than 10% of the time, and take up approximately 45% of our city's budget. The police are ill-equipped and over-funded to deal with the realities of mental health crises and homelessness, and should have the burden of dealing with these problems taken away from them, for everyone's safety.
I'm a lifelong East Oakland resident and Registered Nurse and I strongly support the MACRO concept and am excited to see the city taking this seriously by proposing this as an "in house" program. Having worked for both non-profit social service providers and for county run social service programs, I know first hand that having the stability of a municipality-run program is key to a program's success and sustainability. Great to see this in the works.
I am a District 2 resident and homeowner and I fully support Councilmembers Bas & Kalb's resolution to support rapid, community-informed implementation of MACRO / Mobile Assistance Community Responders of Oakland within the Fire Department. Keeping the Police in charge of mental health response puts our community at risk, and this practice must end. But any old version of MACRO will not suffice: MACRO must be staffed by city workers who have expertise working with communities suffering from mental health, addiction and domestic violence, and it must be set up with direction from a community advisory board led by those with experience providing mental health support to survivors of state violence and other impacted communities.
As a Co-Chair of one of the RPSTF ABs I’m deeply familiar with MACRO and the delays in it’s implementation. I want to state unequivocally that I’m a strong advocate for MACRO and for shifting away from OPD.
However, as a private resident of Oakland, I cannot support this legislation in its current form. I urge all City Council members to vote no on this legislation until it can be assured that qualified staff or organizations are in charge of MACRO.
The legislation being voted on today is not a vote to ensure that Oakland Fire Department runs or staffs MACRO. This legislation is a transparent attempt by the Anti Police Terror Project to win city contracts related to the program’s design and evaluation, training of MACRO staff, and to potentially win the entire $1.8M contract. APTP explicitly mentioned this financial self-interest in an email they sent to supporters today.
This behavior by APTP is even more concerning since this same group sent out emails encouraging people to attack APTP’s top MACRO competitors in the 2/9 Public Safety Commitee. Our city’s own DVP rated the APTP 60% less capable of serving our community than their top competitors and instead of allowing a qualified group to have MACRO up and running before June, APTP has helped to delay and sabotage this process to their benefit. We are now 1-2 years away from launching MACRO instead of 3 months away; all so that the APTP can win contracts for themselves and their subsidiaries like MH First.
MACRO is an important step in reimagining the public safety of our communities. It is important work to support these community members in crisis and the workers who deliver these services deserve to be protected by a union and with fair compensation that reflects the importance of the work. I am an SEIU 1021 member who supports bringing this work in-house as a way to build good city jobs to support our community members both as workers and those receiving service.
MACRO is a fully designed and structured program to provide civilian response to non-violent emergency assistance calls that will now become part of OFD’s crisis response division. The unique features of MACRO as designed are that the trained team of EMT and Crisis counselor will not provide any care that is refused by the caller. The team will not have the capacity to force individuals into a Psychiatric hospital hold. Their main purpose is not mental health, but rather, non-criminal crises, including dispute resolution, non-emergency medical care, transportation to services, & problems related to being unsheltered, intoxicated, disoriented, dealing with substance abuse and mental illness.
Civilian responders need to be recruited from the communities they’ll be working with, so they share a cultural understanding with the people they’ll be serving. MACRO will also be a potential job creation program.
Thank you for all efforts to expedite implementation of MACRO within the Oakland OFD. Having been present at the Police Commission hearing on the unhoused and OPD, in January of 2019, read that report, and then being present at the June 2019 meeting at St. Columba sponsored by the Police Commission, Faith In Action East Bay, Coalition for Police Accountability and council members Kaplan and Gallo, and following the subsequent research and community engagement by Urban Strategies Council, it's clear that MACRO implementation is needed ASAP. The model is clearly defined - and it needs to be framed not simply around "mental health" but an inclusive response to 911 calls for service and assistance that don't involve violence. The "mental health" frame is limiting and hinders the level of interruption of police response that's inappropriate and often harmful which can. be achieved and is needed. The exclusive references to MACRO as a "mental health" unit are confounding. The CAHOOTS model needs to be adapted to Oakland, but it's not simply "mental health." Also, since the actual genesis of MACRO can be traced directly to the Police Commission's hearing on the unhoused, it's problematic to conflate all service calls related to unhoused persons as "mental health" calls. Can we straighten this out? It's not simply a "mental health" response and it's, frankly, reactionary and condescending to continue this formulation.
MACRO is urgently needed in Oakland - city council, we need your dedicated leadership on this issue. A report from the Washington Post found that at least 25% of people killed by police showed signs of mental illness. Additionally, people who are experiencing mental illness or a disability are 16 times more likely to die during police encounters. A culturally responsive and trauma informed mobile response program has the potential to reduce harm, prevent senseless killings by police officers, and support those in crisis to get the help they need. The core of public safety is about meeting the basic needs of community. It is essential for this resolution to be adopted immediately - mental illness is not a crime and the way Oakland currently responds to those in crisis is in fact criminal.
This program will be life saving for many-please put in the effort!
It is essential that we support MACRO to fund and train mental health professionals to respond to mental health crises. This role should not be undertaken by police, who are untrained and disproportionately respond with violence, including lethal violence, when people are in need due to mental health crises, substance abuse, and domestic violence. It is vital that we support this program NOW.
Paired with item 20 which would place MACRO under the Fire Department's jurisdiction, this is a much needed step in reducing police violence in Oakland. We as a city need to reevaluate what our police department is for; they are sent to deal with violent crimes less than 10% of the time, and take up approximately 45% of our city's budget. The police are ill-equipped and over-funded to deal with the realities of mental health crises and homelessness, and should have the burden of dealing with these problems taken away from them, for everyone's safety.
I'm a lifelong East Oakland resident and Registered Nurse and I strongly support the MACRO concept and am excited to see the city taking this seriously by proposing this as an "in house" program. Having worked for both non-profit social service providers and for county run social service programs, I know first hand that having the stability of a municipality-run program is key to a program's success and sustainability. Great to see this in the works.
I am a District 2 resident and homeowner and I fully support Councilmembers Bas & Kalb's resolution to support rapid, community-informed implementation of MACRO / Mobile Assistance Community Responders of Oakland within the Fire Department. Keeping the Police in charge of mental health response puts our community at risk, and this practice must end. But any old version of MACRO will not suffice: MACRO must be staffed by city workers who have expertise working with communities suffering from mental health, addiction and domestic violence, and it must be set up with direction from a community advisory board led by those with experience providing mental health support to survivors of state violence and other impacted communities.
As a Co-Chair of one of the RPSTF ABs I’m deeply familiar with MACRO and the delays in it’s implementation. I want to state unequivocally that I’m a strong advocate for MACRO and for shifting away from OPD.
However, as a private resident of Oakland, I cannot support this legislation in its current form. I urge all City Council members to vote no on this legislation until it can be assured that qualified staff or organizations are in charge of MACRO.
The legislation being voted on today is not a vote to ensure that Oakland Fire Department runs or staffs MACRO. This legislation is a transparent attempt by the Anti Police Terror Project to win city contracts related to the program’s design and evaluation, training of MACRO staff, and to potentially win the entire $1.8M contract. APTP explicitly mentioned this financial self-interest in an email they sent to supporters today.
This behavior by APTP is even more concerning since this same group sent out emails encouraging people to attack APTP’s top MACRO competitors in the 2/9 Public Safety Commitee. Our city’s own DVP rated the APTP 60% less capable of serving our community than their top competitors and instead of allowing a qualified group to have MACRO up and running before June, APTP has helped to delay and sabotage this process to their benefit. We are now 1-2 years away from launching MACRO instead of 3 months away; all so that the APTP can win contracts for themselves and their subsidiaries like MH First.
MACRO is an important step in reimagining the public safety of our communities. It is important work to support these community members in crisis and the workers who deliver these services deserve to be protected by a union and with fair compensation that reflects the importance of the work. I am an SEIU 1021 member who supports bringing this work in-house as a way to build good city jobs to support our community members both as workers and those receiving service.
MACRO is a fully designed and structured program to provide civilian response to non-violent emergency assistance calls that will now become part of OFD’s crisis response division. The unique features of MACRO as designed are that the trained team of EMT and Crisis counselor will not provide any care that is refused by the caller. The team will not have the capacity to force individuals into a Psychiatric hospital hold. Their main purpose is not mental health, but rather, non-criminal crises, including dispute resolution, non-emergency medical care, transportation to services, & problems related to being unsheltered, intoxicated, disoriented, dealing with substance abuse and mental illness.
Civilian responders need to be recruited from the communities they’ll be working with, so they share a cultural understanding with the people they’ll be serving. MACRO will also be a potential job creation program.
Yes to MACRO.
This is a great initiative to reduce police violence