The U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday that it has reasonable cause to believe that the state of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City and the Oklahoma City Police Department discriminate against people with behavioral health disabilities.
The federal investigation took place over two years, after the Justice Department received a complaint in 2022.
The report highlights two main areas of concern.
First, it finds Oklahoma unnecessarily institutionalizes, or puts at serious risk of unnecessary institutionalization, adults with behavioral health disabilities in the Oklahoma County area. This puts the state in violation of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
It also identifies a pattern of discrimination by OKC and OKCPD against people with behavioral health disabilities when providing emergency response services. That’s also a violation of Title II of the ADA and of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.
The report acknowledges both the state and city initiated improvements during the span of the investigation, but recommended additional changes take place.
“People with behavioral health disabilities in the Oklahoma County area are not receiving the support they need,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
“Instead of accessing treatment in the community, they are institutionalized repeatedly,” she added. “Further, when they call 911 for a behavioral health emergency, they get a response by armed police, even when there is no public safety issue identified. As a result, urgent mental health needs often go unaddressed and crisis situations are needlessly escalated, sometimes leading to avoidable use of force.
Clarke said the Justice Department is committed to working collaboratively with Oklahoma and Oklahoma City to implement a lasting fix.
But state officials Gov. Kevin Stitt and Attorney General Gentner Drumond both disagree with the report's findings. They argue it is an example of “Biden administration overreach.”
“We will closely review the findings,” Drummond wrote in a press release, “but the DOJ report appears to be an attempt to bully Oklahoma into compliance with ever-changing and undefined targets.”
Commissioner of the State Department of Mental Health Allie Friesen said federal investigators focused on a “select few cases” to overshadow the department’s efforts.
She pointed to the state’s recent successes, including the 988 program, statewide Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics, crisis stabilization centers, transportation initiatives and telehealth innovations.
Freisen also called the report’s findings “subjective,” and said the state has identified similar measures in a plan already provided to the Justice Department.
The Justice Department's proposed changes include:
- Increased availability of community-based services
- Proactive community outreach that prevents unnecessary institutionalization
- Strong community-based services that prevent unnecessary readmissions to hospitals or long-term care facilities
- Behavioral health mobile response teams to deploy to mental health crisis 911 calls
- Clear and effective policies and training for handling behavioral health 911 calls
- Reasonable modifications for OKCPD officers responding to people with behavioral health disabilities
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.
