DOJ Report Finds Violations of ADA by Oklahoma, OKC, and OKCPD

(OKLAHOMA COUNTY, Okla.) The Department of Justice (DOJ) has released a report alleging that the State of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, and the Oklahoma City Police Department (OKCPD) have discriminated against individuals with behavioral health disabilities.

The report asserts that Oklahoma’s reliance on segregated settings to serve adults with behavioral health disabilities violates Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Additionally, Oklahoma City and OKCPD were found to be in violation of Title II of the ADA and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.

Investigation Background

The DOJ’s investigation into these Oklahoma agencies began following a complaint filed on November 17, 2022. The investigation was conducted under the ADA.

Kristen Clarke, Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, commented on the findings.

“People with behavioral health disabilities in the Oklahoma County area are not receiving the support they need,” she said. “Instead of accessing treatment in the community, they are institutionalized repeatedly. Further, when they call 911 for a behavioral health emergency, they get a response by armed police, even when there is no public safety issue identified. As a result, urgent mental health needs often go unaddressed and crisis situations are needlessly escalated, sometimes leading to avoidable use of force.”

Key Findings

Oklahoma County has a population of around 796,292, with nearly 30,000 residents living with a serious mental illness. The investigation found that many of these individuals are institutionalized rather than being offered community-based services. Adults with behavioral health disabilities in Oklahoma County are frequently sent to state-run Griffin Memorial Hospital. 

Admissions to psychiatric hospitals in Oklahoma increased by 33% between 2018 and 2023. The report connects these unnecessary hospitalizations to the state’s failure to provide community-based alternatives, which could include peer support and a Program of Assertive Community Treatment (PACT).

Still, the shortage of these solutions often results in calls to 911 for behavioral health issues.

“The city’s unnecessary use of armed OKCPD officers to respond to people with behavioral health disabilities is often ineffective and even harmful,” says page 32 of the report. “The stated purpose of OKCPD’s 911 Communications program is to provide a ‘proper service response,’ but the city and its staff have acknowledged, and our review showed, that sending only police is not the proper response to many behavioral health-related calls.”

Responses from State Officials

Governor Kevin Stitt, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, and Ally Friesen, Commissioner for the Oklahoma State Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, responded to the report’s findings.

“While tragic stories exist, as in any health system, the DOJ focuses on a select few cases to overshadow what it acknowledges are the state's laudable efforts to build out its crisis system in recent years,” Friesen said. “We disagree with the report's adverse findings as well as the DOJ's subjective recommendations on how we should run our mental health system…Our priority remains working with community partners to deliver the best care in the most appropriate settings.”

Remedial Measures

The investigation also noted that the state, Oklahoma City, and OKCPD must take remedial measures to address the alleged issues. These measures include:

- Expanding the availability of community-based services

- Conducting proactive outreach and engagement in the community to avoid unnecessary institutionalization

- Establishing strong connections to community-based services from institutions to prevent unnecessary readmissions

- Developing behavioral health mobile response teams consistent with evidence-based practices

- Deploying behavioral health professional-led responses where appropriate

- Ensuring that policies and training for handling behavioral health-related 911 calls are clear and effective

- Requiring OKCPD officers to make reasonable modifications when responding to individuals with behavioral health disabilities

A copy of the full investigative report can be found here.