Behavioral health clinicians will now accompany law enforcement on certain emergency responses in San Mateo County’s four largest cities, part of a pilot program seeking to keep people going through a mental health crisis from ending up in jail or emergency rooms.

The two-year program launches Monday, Dec. 6, in Daly City, Redwood City, San Mateo and South San Francisco after the county Board of Supervisors and the city councils for the four cities approved it earlier this year with the goal of ensuring risky situations can be de-escalated and the person in crisis as well as the first responders can stay safe.

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Dan McMenamin is the managing editor at Bay City News, directing daily news coverage of the 12-county greater Bay Area. He has worked for BCN since 2008 and has been managing editor since 2014 after previously serving as BCN’s San Francisco bureau reporter. A UC Davis graduate, he came to BCN after working for a newspaper and nonprofit in the Davis area. He handles staffing, including coaching of our interns, day-to-day coverage decisions and management of the newswire.