Because of a new ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, some firefighters and other first responders are finding themselves left without police backup as more and more departments are saying that they will no longer dispatch officers to certain 911 calls. The Sacramento County Sheriff announced Tuesday his deputies will no longer respond to mental health calls where a crime is not being committed. The shift in policy comes, Sheriff Jim Cooper said, after a 2024 ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Scott v. Smith, 109 F.4th 1215 (2024).
Such circumstances create a dilemma for firefighters and medical providers: people need their help urgently but now, without law enforcement to secure the scene, they must potentially risk working in an unsafe environment. But why is this happening? The source of this particular issue stems from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that expands officers’ potential liability when restraining a subject suffering from a mental health crisis.
The Facts
Roy Scott dialed 911 on March 3, 2019, claiming people were outside his apartment with a saw. Police officers Kyle Smith and Theodore Huntsman were the first to arrive, with dispatch alerting them that Scott was mentally ill. When they arrived at the apartment, they knocked and identified themselves, remaining outside despite Scott’s urgings for them to “break the door down.” After a few minutes they came to the conclusion that Scott was indeed suffering from a mental illness. After about 7 minutes from their arrival, Scott opened the door holding a metal pipe.
The officers retreated from Scott and ordered him to drop the pipe, which he did. Scott was clearly disoriented. The officers ordered him to stand by the wall and asked if he had any more weapons. Scott complied and produced a knife, apologizing whilst he did so, and handed it handle-first to Huntsman without making any...
