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24 WORKING GROUP POLICE-INVOLVED DEADLY FORCE ENCOUNTERS RECOMMENDATIONS AND ACTION STEPS HEARING SUMMARIES the schools to reach all youth and is making efforts to develop a middle school model without a driving component. The third panel was anchored by Michael Freeman, Hennepin County Attorney and John Choi, Ramsey County Attorney. Freeman shared an updated pro- tocol his office is developing to address officer use of force. He provided a copy of the current draft of the policy and reiterated his support for the original nine suggestions he made during Hearing 1, and he provided an update on additional key learnings since then. His staff provided a detailed review of areas they think need more attention with specific recommendations. During Q&A, both Freeman and Choi responded to questions about how to improve the transparency and openness of the prosecution of police-involved deadly force cases while protecting the due process rights of officers. Both agreed that they would be willing to explore creating a Special Prosecutor Unit within the Attorney General’s Office to handle these cases statewide to ensure objectivity and the level of expertise needed to effectively prosecute such cases. Testimony also identified that for Hennepin County, 100 percent of the 15 cases since 2015 have had incomplete training and personnel records. This needs to be addressed through better local agency protocols. The fourth panel addressed mental health and autism with presentations by Richard Flaten and Mike Vandervort of the Metro Crisis Incident Stress Management Team (CISM); Sue Abderholden, exec- utive director of the National Alliance for Mental Illness-MN (NAMI); and Noah McCourt, autism advocate. The Metro CISM Team presented an overview of officer mental health best practices, including peer support teams. They recommended the legislature adopt privacy protection legislation for peer support conversations so that peer supporters cannot be called to provide evidence in court cases related to protected conversations. They also recom- mended the review and adoption of the 22 recom- mendations in the Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Report to Congress. Abderholden provided testimony addressing the areas of concern and recommendations of NAMI to improve services and interventions with people experiencing mental health episodes. NAMI would prefer officers to be trained in CIT but not to assume that means they can provide mental health clinical services. NAMI recom- mends including mental health professionals as part of the response team, and would prefer that mental health episodes be responded to by a mental health team rather than officers. McCourt provided an over- view on the impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on police-community interactions. He recommended further exploration of the voluntary Vitals App that can alert law enforcement officers if a person has provided information about their mental health status to improve informed interactions. The fifth panel focused on the testimony from two affected law enforcement families to present the reality that a police-involved deadly force encounter has repercussions on officers, their families and their agencies. The first speaker was a mental health professional whose husband is a police officer who shot and injured a suspect to prevent himself from being seriously injured during an altercation. She spoke to the impact on the entire family, the process he went through during the investigation, and the services that were provided to the family. The second presenter addressed a different scenario where a loved one who was an officer was killed in the line of duty during an execution-type attack by two teens. She described the ongoing impact over many years on her family and his. Both made recommendations, including: the need for mental health assessments