California refines behavioral crisis transport and law enforcement access
Oct 11, 2026 edition · GC-2026-0236 · Published 2026-10-11 · Version 3 · Final
AB 2405 addresses appropriate destinations for peace-officer Section 5150 transport, while AB 2318 protects safe and reasonable access to available medical care under law-enforcement control. Patient preference, local policies, correctional exclusions, and qualified denial-documentation duties limit the two separate rules.
What happened
California enacted AB 2405 on September 30 as Chapter 939. A peace officer transporting a person for Section 5150 assessment must use the closest appropriate designated facility, geographically or by time, measured from where custody began; if an emergency department is most appropriate, the corresponding closest-appropriate rule applies. Officers may consider an affirmatively expressed facility preference, but it must not unreasonably delay care or excessively deviate from the closest appropriate destination. Written local diversion, transport, and destination agreements remain permissible. The section excludes CDCR and California Correctional Health Care Services.
AB 2318, enacted September 29 as Chapter 747, makes it unlawful for officers to deny, delay, obstruct, or fail to facilitate medical evaluation or treatment when access is safe and reasonable and a medical professional has been requested or is present and willing to care. CDCR custody or detention is excluded, and the definition reaches federal officers only to the extent federal law permits. When a willing clinician is present but access is denied or delayed, the 72-hour documentation and oversight-reporting requirements apply subject to the ongoing-investigation and officer-safety qualification. Those are law-enforcement duties, with possible administrative discipline, rather than a new hospital 72-hour submission requirement.
Scope and timing
- Authority status
- Final
- Applicability
- Potentially applicable
- Audience
- Health systems, Provider networks, Health-tech
- Jurisdiction
- California
- Recorded date
- 2027-01-01
- Date type
- effective
Why it matters
Clinical receiving and outreach services need consistent coordination with law enforcement.
Recommended action
Reconcile local destination and diversion agreements, medical access escalation and receiving-facility protocols; the officer 72-hour documentation duty is not a hospital reporting deadline.
Sources
- AB2405 enacted final textOfficial · California Legislature · 2026-09-30 · Source review 2026-10-11
- AB2318 enacted final textOfficial · California Legislature · 2026-09-29 · Source review 2026-10-11
- California Constitution, Article IV section 8(c), official Assembly 2023–24 editionOfficial · California State Assembly · Source review 2026-10-14
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