The Seattle Police Department had lost 27 percent of its force in the last two years and was increasingly reluctant to intervene in any situation involving a mental health crisis because of new laws limiting use of force. The average wait time for inpatient psychiatric treatment had risen to a record 44 days. Just like most major metropolitan areas, from New York to Denver to Los Angeles, the greater King County area had experienced a historic spike in homelessness, suicides, homicides and drug overdoses in the last few years, overwhelming its already under-resourced mental health systems. For the last two and a half years, this was how Naomi and her team of caseworkers, clinicians and addiction specialists at the nonprofit Downtown Emergency Service Center had started each morning: by making a day-by-day accounting of the rising mental health crisis that had overwhelmed and transformed Seattle and so many other places in the country.
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