In this image taken from body camera video released by Illinois State Police, Sonya Massey, left, talks with former Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson outside her home in Springfield on July 6, shortly before the deputy fatally shot her.
AP
An Illinois law intended to help people with mental illness avoid confrontations with police had been on the books for three years when Sonya Massey was shot to death July 6 by a Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy.
The Community Emergency Services and Supports Act, or CESSA, requires mental and behavioral health calls to 911 be handled by mental health professionals, rather than police. It was supposed to go into effect on July 1, 2022 — two years before Massey, who was experiencing a mental health crisis, was killed by Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson.
“I think if this system was in place, and emergency responders were trained and aware of what is available to them, then I think Sonya Massey would still be with us today,” said Candace Coleman, community strategy specialist with Access Living, a Chicago-based organization that advocates for disabled people.
The struggle over CESSA’s execution has twice caused lawmakers to push back its effective date, but Sen. Robert Peters, a Chicago Democrat and one of the bill’s sponsors, said Massey’s death underscores the need to carry out reform.
“I feel confident that we are going to get this done. The state and the advocates want to get this right,” Peters said. “And Sonya Massey is the exactly the reason we need to get this done.”
Administrative delays
Getting CESSA up and running has been complicated by the multiple agencies involved, according to Illinois Department of Human Services spokeswoman Rachel Otwell. Those include local law enforcement, telecommunication services, community mental health providers, public and private emergency medical services and the advocates who pushed for the reform.
In a written response to questions, Otwell said all these groups and organizations have different ideas about how the law should work and how their systems can best be coordinated, and each are governed by different laws, rules and regulations.
But Massey’s case underscores the existence of ongoing failures when law enforcement responds to calls involving those experiencing a mental health crisis.
A 2022 study by the American Psychological Association put the number of police calls involving a person experiencing mental illness at around 20%, while the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority says it’s between 7% and 10%.
In Illinois, police have killed 200 people since 2015, according to state police statistics. Of those, 31, or about 15%, involved a call about a person with mental illness.
During a recorded 911 call the day before a deputy shot her daughter, Donna Massey begged dispatchers to send help. She told a dispatcher she wanted no “combative” officers.
“I don’t want you guys to hurt her. Please,” Donna Massey said during a two-minute 911 call made the morning of July 5.
Like Donna Massey, those with children coping with mental illness or neurodivergence often are forced to contemplate whether calling police is the best way to keep their loved one safe during a crisis. A study conducted at the John Jay School of Criminal Justice published in 2021 found that police are more than 10 times more likely to use force against a person experiencing mental illness than a person who is not.
“It’s hard for people who know that they have a mental health condition to call for help because they fear for their lives,” Coleman, of Access Living, said. “All that is at play; family members also fear for their loved ones’ lives. So, this is not an easy topic at all, because people do die.”
‘Fastest assistance possible’
In the early morning hours of July 6, Sonya Massey called 911 to report a prowler outside her home, setting in motion the chain of events that left her dead and Grayson, the deputy who shot her, facing charges of first-degree murder.
Dispatchers who sent deputies to Massey’s home that night didn’t relay that she was the subject of calls in previous days, including the one from her mother about her apparent mental breakdown. She told dispatchers that her daughter was thinking that people were out to get her, like “paranoid schizophrenic.”
Sangamon County 911 Director Chris Mueller said in a written statement that this is easier to see in hindsight. Sonya Massey did not give her name when she called 911, he said, so no one connected the earlier call from her mother.
“Researching each call history would take time,” Mueller said in a written response. “The 9-1-1 system is predicated on providing the fastest assistance possible to the caller in need.”
When operational, CESSA is meant to help 911 dispatchers avoid call delays but also identify calls involving mental health, even when a caller does not mention mental health.
The current CESSA implementation deadline is July 1, 2025, but an exact timeline of what will happen between now and then is still up in the air, Otwell said. Ongoing testing could require retooling the system and retesting to work out any bugs.
Coleman said better training, destigmatizing mental illness and improving access to care for people experiencing mental illness are all much needed, especially downstate where there is a scarcity of resources. Providing not only intervention, but also the necessary care is an important part of getting help to those in crisis.
The genesis of CESSA was the 2012 shooting of a 15-year-old Calumet City student with Aspergers’ syndrome, a form of autism. Stephon Watts became so upset at the prospect of going to school that his father called the hospital, then — on the advice of a doctor and a social worker — the police.
Five officers arrived at the home. The teen, who was 5-feet, 7-inches tall and weighed 220 pounds, had a history of being physically combative with his family and police. According to press accounts, he wielded a knife at officers, who fired at him, striking him twice and killing him.
This undated photo provided by the family’s lawyers in July 2024 shows Sonya Massey of Springfield.
AP
Crisis training
Since 2003, the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board has offered a state-certified course in crisis intervention. The 40-hour course teaches less-than-lethal tactics to deal with people with developmental disabilities or mental illness.
According to its’ website, ILETSB has certified over 8,125 officers from 560 agencies.
Grayson, the deputy who shot Massey, was one of them. ILETSB’s records showed Grayson received and passed the 40 hours of crisis intervention training from March 20 to 24, 2023 — not quite 16 months before he shot an unarmed Massey in her kitchen.
ILETSB’s crisis intervention training is meant to reduce use of force incidents, but typically goes against the grain of traditional police training.
“What we learn with police training and culture is control. We learn that the cop always has to be in charge. Be the alpha,” said Chet Epperson, a use of force expert and retired Rockford police chief with 33 years of experience. “But in mental health calls, it’s different. An officer needs to relinquish control of the conversation. De-escalation is the goal. You want to be patient and give them the time but then ultimately voluntarily comply.”
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