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Daytona Beach News Journal

September 28, 2003

Excerpts from article

Police urge Baker Act reform

by Lyda Longa

... Law enforcement and other emergency officials argue that early, mandatory treatment could help keep people from being "Baker Acted" many times. "It's like a train that gets off the tracks," said Daytona Beach Fire Battalion Chief Jeff Smith. "Over a period of time, you see the same people over and over again being brought in."

... Rosanna Esposito, an attorney with the Virginia-based Treatment Advocacy Center, which champions laws to protect the mentally ill and monitors the Baker Act in Florida, said roughly 7,500 people in the state were arrested under the statute at least twice in 2000 - a figure that increased by 14 percent between 2001 and 2002 - and 540 people in the state were taken in under the act eight or more times between 2000 and 2001. "Increasingly, law enforcement keeps dealing with people in crisis because of untreated mental illness," Esposito said. "People are reaching the point of dangerousness and mental health officials are afraid to deal with them. That's when they call the police."

Top lawmen like Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson and Seminole County Sheriff Don Eslinger know about the perils of "reaching the point of dangerousness." ... Johnson recounted the story of a man who had been repeatedly picked up by Volusia deputies and taken to Halifax Medical Center's psychiatric ward because of his uncontrollable rages. The last time, he became so enraged he kicked out the cage inside a patrol car, putting the officer in jeopardy. "Most of these people don't know they're mentally ill," Johnson said. "They start to feel good and they stop taking their medications and they get in trouble."