CONCORD — Gov. Chris Sununu signed legislation last July that provided more funding for police crisis intervention training and formed a committee to review whether the state should form a mental health incident review board. Such a board, similar to one that reviews child fatalities in the state, would look into every police killing of people in mental distress.

The committee recommended in November that the state form a mental health incident review board, but its realization would have to come from the Legislature.

A path forward for such an action remains murky: no publicly filed bills for the current session would create the board. But the killing of Mischa Fay by Gilford police at the start of the year may have helped jumpstart efforts to do so.

While the Attorney General’s Office already investigates every civilian killing by on-duty officers, its assessment is limited to whether the officer’s use of deadly force had legal justification. A review board within the Department of Health and Human Services would more broadly examine the circumstances around officers’ use of lethal force and around victims’ mental health crises, including what services may have been available to them and how officers engaged with them leading up to the killing.

In a statement after Fay’s death, the New Hampshire chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness “strongly urged” the Statehouse to make it happen, “so that such incidents can be examined, learned from, and policies, procedures and services enacted that may prevent future tragedies.”

Sen. Tim Lang (R–Sanbornton) was a sponsor of SB 376 — the bill forming the review committee and upping crisis intervention training funding — as a member of the House last year.

In an interview, Lang initially said he was unaware of any moves in the Legislature this session to create a mental health incident review board. When asked what led him to sponsor the bill last term, he emphasized the importance of officer training, and providing resources to increase its quality and quantity, in striving toward the best responses to cases like Fay’s. Lang said he had not read the committee’s report.

Asked if legislation to form an incident review board is something he might bring to the floor, Lang said it was. In a follow-up, Lang outlined his plan.

“I will be speaking with the governor’s office to see if this board can be created via executive order,” Lang said in an electronic communication with The Sun. “If not, I will bring an amendment to the Senate for the creation of the recommended board.”

The governor’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

The board would add a mental health-specific lens to and broaden the scope of existing review processes for uses of lethal force by law enforcement.

If realized, the board “would not examine any of the aspects already determined by other reviews,” according to the committee’s recommendations, “but instead would focus on developing best practices for law enforcement and mental health services, while identifying possible opportunities for prevention.” It would “focus exclusively on a comprehensive review of the mental health aspects of these incidents,” with the “intention of creating best practices [and] preventing these situations from occurring through potential earlier intervention or other measures.”

The board’s exact membership would be determined by the legislative process, but the committee recommended that law enforcement, mental health experts and veteran advocates be included. It would have no punitive power, and its findings would “have strongly established and outlined confidentiality measures” and be “exempt from discovery or disclosure for any reason, and prohibited from disclosure or use for discipline, prosecution, or civil litigation.”

Sen. Sharon Carson (R–Londonderry), who chaired the committee, did not respond to requests for comment.

The Attorney General’s investigation into the use of lethal force against Fay by Gilford police officers is ongoing, and could take months.

Separate from an investigation’s findings, a review board, if implemented, has the opportunity to look at situations like the one that ended in Fay’s death from a prevention-minded framing, with a broader array of questioning, according to Susan Stearns, executive director of NAMI NH.

“What happened in the weeks, months, or even a year or more prior to the incident? Where was this individual interacting with systems?” Stearns said. “Were there opportunities missed or practices that we realized led to, maybe, decisions that sent this individual down the path to this moment of time where they have this interaction with law enforcement? Were these the right people to respond?”

A broad range of inquiry is key to prevention because the factors leading to mental health crises touch a vast web of issues. Other issues Stearns said legislators could address, and that could be informed by a panel, include housing accessibility, health care workforce shortages, telehealth access, respite bed availability, Medicaid changes and provider licensing.

“It’s important for not just people with mental illness and their families, but also for our first responders, because these events are traumatic for everyone involved,” Stearns said. “We’re really missing an opportunity to learn from a tragedy in order to prevent a future one.”

Stearns emphasized that anyone experiencing a mental health, suicide, or substance-abuse crisis can call or text 988, the state’s rapid response line for behavioral health emergencies.

These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.]]>