MET | Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department

Mental Evaluation Team Reports

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Mental Evaluation Team (LASD MET) provides crisis assessment, intervention and targeted case management services to diffuse potentially violent situations, prepare appropriate documentation to assist in the placement of persons with mental illness in acute inpatient psychiatric facilities, and/or to link these individuals to outpatient mental health services or appropriate community resources.

Each team consists of a deputy sheriff and a DMH licensed mental health clinician who is Lanterman-Petris-Short Act (LPS) designated to initiate involuntary acute psychiatric hospitalization, in accordance with the Welfare and Institutions Code (WIC), section 5150 or 5585. The MET provides mental health support, field crisis intervention, and appropriate psychiatric placement in situations involving patrol deputy contacts with citizens suffering from mental illness. The goal of this co-response model is to reduce incidents with use of force, reduce hospitalizations, and avoid unnecessary incarcerations of severely mentally ill citizens.

LASD MET also performs in-service training for de-escalation, crisis negotiations during major incidents, averting use of force and reducing incarceration of mentally ill consumers. MET clinicians educate families about the least restrictive options to mental health crisis interventions.