Austin has one of the highest rates of fatal police shootings of people suffering from mental health issues, a city audit has found.

Austin has one of the highest rates of fatal police shootings of people suffering from mental health issues, and the Police Department's mental health policies are not in line widely accepted law enforcement practices, a city audit has found.

The audit, which was presented to city leaders last week, found that:

Austin police officers did not receive continuing mental health training after earning certifications as mental health officers. Dispatchers did not immediately send mental health officers to lead the response to calls involving mental health issues. The department doesn’t track and review crisis intervention incidents to find ways to improve its policies and practices. As a result of these lapses, the audit found that people experiencing a mental health crisis in Austin may find themselves at a higher risk of a bad encounter with officers compared with those in a city that is more closely in step with international best practices.

The audit said that Austin Police Department records showed a 95 percent increase in mental health-related calls since 2008. From 2014 through 2017, they accounted for 7 percent of all calls for service.

“Additionally, we analyzed a report of fatal police encounters in the 15 most populous cities as well as Seattle. That data indicated that APD has the highest per capita rate of fatal police shootings involving persons believed to be experiencing a mental health crisis,” the audit said.

Austin police records obtained by the American-Statesman showed that a third of the 24 people killed in police shootings from 2010 through 2016 had a confirmed mental health condition.

The audit, which compared the Austin police model for mental health response with six other cities showed that Austin police responded to 12,004 Crisis Intervention Team calls in 2017, which placed Austin near the bottom of the list of cities considered in the audit:

Houston: 37,000 calls San Antonio: 15,903 calls Phoenix: 15,862 calls Dallas: 15,593 calls (2016) Seattle: 10,000 calls Philadelphia: Mental health calls were not available The report said Austin police follow some international core elements for crisis intervention teams. For instance, CIT officers get 40 hours of specialized training, call takers get 24 hours of training on recognizing CIT crisis events, and the department collaborates with mental health professionals like Integral Care in Travis County.

However, CIT officers in Austin don’t get regular continuing training covering crisis intervention, de-escalation and mental health, which officers in every other city considered in the audit receive every year to two years, the audit said.

“In January 2018, APD revised its 'response to resistance' resistance policy to address de-escalation issues. Also, APD reported that they are starting a new training course in late 2018 that includes 10 hours of de-escalation training,” the audit said.

Austin police dispatchers also did not automatically identify the nearest mental health officer to an incident and get them headed in that direction. Instead, mental health officers were sent out at the request of a caller or responding officer.

Finally, while crisis intervention incidents are reviewed for follow-up action with an individual, they were not evaluated for improvements to the overall process.

Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said the department has already taken steps to address some of the issues brought up in the audit, and others are in the works.

“We have already changed our policy, and policy now will call for a mental health officer to be immediately dispatched to those calls where we believe it is at issue, as long as there is one available,” Manley said. “We will always dispatch an officer just to at least start making a scene secure and having a response, but we will now send an initial officer who is an MHO officer.”

Manley said Austin police will work with those affected by mental health issues or their family members, to put together a refresher course that will sharpen the mental health-related training acquired by officers.

He said the department is looking into improving protocols for dispatchers that could help them better determine which calls need a specialized mental health response, rather than normal law enforcement response.

“We’re going to work with our partners, both internal and external stakeholders, again, to review how we currently approach calls involving those with mental health illness, and ways that we can improve and advance that,” Manley said.