Policy Text
University of California, San Francisco
Police Department General Orders
4.8 Police Office Custody of Mentally Ill Persons
4.8.4 Restraint of Suspected Mentally Ill Persons (Issued: 6/25/07)
Officers will not prevent a competent, adult patient who refuses treatment from leaving the
hospital. Officers are to assist staff in restraining violent patients only if one or more of the
conditions listed under Section A of this order are met. Passively resisting patients who meet
criteria under Section A should be restrained by medical staff with officer stand -by.
A. Officers will respond to calls for service from UCSF staff. Every patient is presumed
competent to make a decision regarding his/her medical care, unless one or more of the
following exists:
1. The patient is unconscious.
2. The patient is legally incap able of giving an informed refusal of treatment:
a. Conservatorship
b. W&I Code 5150
c. W&I Code 5170.
B. If the above conditions are not met, the patient will be allowed to leave UCSF.
1. He/she may need to be escorted out.
2. Patient should sign out on an Against Medical Advice form.
C. Officers should try to gain a patient’s compliance by talking him/her into cooperating
with the medical staff. Officers who restrain a patient pursuant to any of the above
exemptions will be guided in their actions as follows:
1. Officers may use reasonable force in restraining patients.
2. Handcuffing of patients will be used only for the safety of the patient, medical
staff or officers, and as a temporary restraining device only.
3. Once a patient is under control, a ppropriate soft restraints should be applied and
the handcuffs immediately removed.
4. Officers are not to physically hold a patient down for the purpose of receiving
medication.
D. Officers may detain a patient under W&I Code 5150 for emergency medical t reatment
only if they observe the necessary elements of the section and the attending physician
verifies the treatment is an emergency.
E. Nothing in this section negates the officer’s responsibility to protect the staff or to deal
with the patient separa tely if he/she is committing a crime.
F. Officers will document in a report any action taken, unless the response was a stand -by
only.