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Manual of Policy and Procedures / Volume 5 - Line Procedures / Chapter 9 - Miscellaneous Line Procedures

5-09/080.00 - Conservatee - Unauthorized Leave or Transfer


5-09/070.20 - Authorized Escapee Apprehension by Stations/Unit
5-09/090.00 - Dead Bodies - Homicides, Suicides, Accidental and Natural

A person appointed conservator in accordance with provisions of chapter 3, commencing with section 5350 WIC, may, under section 5358.5 WIC, request assistance in the detention and return of a conservatee who leaves a treatment facility without approval, or in the removal of the conservatee to a County designated treatment facility, when the court has authorized the conservator to involuntarily commit the conservatee to a facility.

Chapter 3, section 7325 WIC, requires any peace officer, upon written request of the administrator of a state hospital, the administrator of a Veterans facility, the administrator of a designated County facility, or a patient's conservator, to apprehend, take into custody and deliver a conservatee to a State hospital, a Veterans Administration facility or a County designated facility, providing the facility is within the county in which the patient is apprehended.

Prior to personnel of this Department accepting a request for apprehension and rendering assistance to authorized persons, the following conditions must be met:

  • Requests for apprehension or assistance must be in writing;
  • Requests for apprehension or assistance must be accompanied by a certified copy of the judicial commitment documents or a certified copy of documents establishing the conservatorship, authorizing the conservator to commit the conservatee to a designated facility; and
  • Identification establishing the individual requesting assistance as an individual legally empowered to request assistance in taking, detaining and transporting the patient in question.

Metropolitan State Hospital, 11400 South Norwalk Boulevard, Norwalk, 90650, will receive patients taken into custody by this Department when they are from a facility other than a Veterans Administration Hospital.

To eliminate undue delays at Metropolitan, it is recommended that the Assistant to the Medical Director be contacted and advised of the situation prior to transporting the patient to the hospital, telephone (562) 863-7011.

Unauthorized leave patients from a Veterans Administration Hospital are to be returned to either the Brentwood VA Hospital on Sawtelle or the Sepulveda VA Hospital in Sepulveda, whichever is closest to the point of apprehension.

Whenever practicable, Department members shall be in plain clothes and unmarked vehicles during the apprehension and transportation of these patients. The transportation shall be accomplished at the earliest feasible time.