Policy Text
FLORIDA MENTAL HEALTH/BAKER ACT
EFFECTIVE DATE: 01/20/91 STANDARD NO. 013 REVISED: 11/01/18
REPLACES: SOP Baker Act 02-01.1-6 – Rev. 01/01/03; Rev. 06/01/05; Rev. 07/08/16
OBJECTIVE: To establish criteria for the handling, care, and transport of individuals who fit the
criteria of Florida’s Mental Health Act.
POLICY: The Florida Legislature, through the Mental Health Act, established a
comprehensive plan to provide for the social, educational, and rehabilitative
needs and the general welfare of persons experiencing mental health problems.
It is the policy of the Homestead Police Department (HPD) that the individual
dignity of persons suffering from emotional disorders shall be respected at all
times, including any occasion when the person is detained, taken into custody, or
transported by HPD officers. Procedures dealing with detention, custody, or
transport of these individuals shall comply with the laws of the State of Florida
and with guidelines established by the Florida Division of Mental Health,
Department of Children and Families.
SCOPE: All employees of this Department will be governed by the procedures listed
below.
I. GENERAL:
A. “Mental illness” is an impairment of the mental or emotional processes that exercise
conscious control of one’s actions or of the ability to perceive or understand reality,
which impairment substantially interferes with the person’s ability to meet the ordinary
demands of living. For the purposes of this part, the term does not include a
developmental disability as defined in chapter 393, intoxication, or conditions manifested
only by antisocial behavior or substance abuse.
B. A person suffering from an emotional disorder has a right to, and may be accorded, help
at a community facility. The first level is called a receiving (crisis) facility, which means a
public or private facility or hospital designated by the department to receive and hold or
refer, as appropriate, involuntary patients under emergency conditions for mental health or
substance abuse evaluation and to provide treatment or transportation to the appropriate
service provider. The receiving facility is designed to evaluate, and treat individuals who
suffers from mentally illness and may be a threat to themselves or others.
There are two (2) types of admission to a receiving facility:
1. Voluntary admission.
2. Involuntary examination:
a. By a circuit or county court.
b. By a physician, clinical psychologist, psychiatric nurse, mental health
counselor, marriage and family therapist, or clinical social worker.
Florida Mental Health/Baker Act – SOP# 013
c. By a law enforcement officer.
C. In each of the above types of involuntary examination, the law enforcement officer may
be required to play a role. The Florida Mental Health Act (FS 394) establishes
procedures to be employed by law enforcement officers who are required to deal with
mental health matters.
D. The dispatch of a backup unit is mandatory unless the originally dispatched unit is a two
(2)-officer unit.
E. In any instance where a person is transported to a receiving facility by means other than
police vehicle, the officer(s) will follow the private vehicle or ambulance.
F. In such cases, HPD personnel will assist the receiving facility staff with the person’s
admission by completing the appropriate forms and assisting the staff in controlling
violent persons.