Academic Training to Inform Police Responses

Project Description

For law enforcement officers, responding to situations involving individuals with behavioral health issues or developmental disabilities in a safe, effective manner can often present a significant challenge.

This Academic Training to Enhance Police Engagement with People with Behavioral Health Issues and Developmental Disabilities is designed to enhance, implement, and evaluate crisis intervention team and disability response training for law enforcement and first responders that is academically based and transdisciplinary. Collectively, this project aims to increase access to training, technical assistance, and companion tools and resources to facilitate the adoption and implementation of multilayered approaches in police response for persons with behavioral health issues or developmental disabilities, including co-responder models, mobile crisis teams, and developmental disability specific approaches.

Project Design and Implementation

In order to improve police response to people with behavioral health issues or developmental disabilities, our team will:

Develop & implement a National Curriculum to inform police responses to people with behavioral health issues and intellectual and developmental disabilities
Develop technology solutions such as e-learning training materials
Develop best practice guides in police response to persons with behavioral health issues or developmental disabilities
Evaluate curriculum development and deliver training and technical assistance
Enhance existing resources and develop new products

Law Enforcement Engagement with People with Behavioral Health Issues and Developmental Disabilities Stakeholder Roundtable

In August 2020, a multi-disciplinary group of individuals with subject matter expertise in police responses to people with behavioral health issues and/or developmental disabilities convened virtually to participate in the Law Enforcement Engagement with People with Behavioral Health Issues and Developmental Disabilities Stakeholder Roundtable. This roundtable was designed to inform the work of the Academic Training to Inform Police Responses by facilitating discussions related to:

Opportunities to advance the safety and effectiveness of police engagement with people with behavioral health (BH) issues and/or developmental disabilities (DD);
Best practices in current crisis response models and collaboration between police and service provider partners; and
Existing and needed products and resources to support police agencies and their service provider partners in the delivery of effective responses.

The Stakeholder Roundtable hosted presentations on existing efforts in police responses to people with BH issues and/or DD. These presentations were designed to facilitate discussions of best practices in police and community responses, methods of police-mental health and police-disability collaboration, and potential barriers to effective responses to people with BH issues and/or DD. The presenters included:

Presenter	Topic
Dr. Rebecca Neusteter Director, University of Chicago Health Lab	Understanding Police Response through Examining 911 Call for Service Data
Ariel Simms, Esq. Senior Program Manager & Attorney, The Arc of the United States	The Arc of the United States’ National Center on Criminal Justice and Disability Pathways to Justice® Initiative
Assistant Chief Kevin Hall Tucson (AZ) Police Department	Tucson Police Department’s Mental Health Support Team (MHST)
Peggy Heil Behavioral Health Specialist, Colorado Division of Criminal Justice	Integrated Dispatch and Crisis Service Response
Assistant Chief Wendy Baimbridge Houston (TX) Police Department	Houston Police Department’s Mental Health Division
Tim Black Director of Consulting, White Bird Clinic	Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets (CAHOOTS; Eugene, OR)
Chief Gina Hawkins Fayetteville (NC) Police Department	Fayetteville Police Department’s Crisis Intervention Team (CIT)
Dr. Margie Balfour Chief of Quality and Clinical Innovation, Connections Health Solutions Associate Professor of Psychiatry; University of Arizona	Southern Arizona’s Crisis Response Center and Crisis System

A full report of the Law Enforcement Engagement with People with Behavioral Health Issues and Developmental Disabilities Stakeholder Roundtable can be found here. This report provides:

An account of the planning and delivery of the Roundtable, including the processes for participant selection and activities across the two-day meeting;
A description of the major themes of the discussions, polls, and survey responses generated by the Stakeholder Roundtable participants; and
Recommendations for future efforts to facilitate collaborative responses to people with BH issues and/or DD within communities.

Transforming Dispatch and Crisis Response Services: Meeting Challenges with Innovation Webinar

Webinar Description:

Historically, law enforcement has been the default response to all 911 calls for service, including incidents involving individuals experiencing crises related to behavioral health disorders and/or intellectual and developmental disabilities. It has been observed that many of these incidents are service-based calls, where the presence of law enforcement may not be needed. In recent years, communities have increased efforts to reorganize their crisis response systems, training 911 call-takers and dispatchers to shift away from directing law enforcement as first responders to these calls. This webinar features four programs that have leveraged the training, policies, and procedures of 911 call-takers and dispatch when restructuring their community’s response to crisis incidents. Panelists present the innovative approaches in crisis response implemented by their programs and discuss the challenges of ensuring appropriate services are dispatched to crisis incidents to best meet the needs of individuals.

Presentations:

Training of CIT Dispatch Trainers
Ruth H. Simera, Med, LSW; Executive Director
Coordinating Centers of Excellence, Northeast Ohio Medical University
Colorado Justice Mental Health Collaboration Program: Dispatch / Crisis Services Collaboration
Peggy Heil, LCSW; Behavioral Health Specialist
Colorado Division of Criminal Justice
Abigail S. Tucker, PsyD
SHE Consulting, LLC
Albuquerque Police Department’s IDD Training for Telecommunicators
Ben Melendrez, Detective
Albuquerque (NM) Police Department
Transitioning 911 Response: San Francisco’s Street Crisis Response Team (SCRT) Pilot Program
Robert Smuts, Deputy Director
San Francisco Department of Emergency Management
Simon Pang, Section Chief of Community Paramedicine
San Francisco Fire Department

Project Partners

Supported by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, this training initiative brings together experts in law enforcement, mental and behavioral health, curriculum development, and evaluation to raise awareness in the law enforcement community about the nature and needs of persons with behavioral health issues or developmental disabilities to facilitate the use of evidence-based and best practices in law enforcement response. More information on the Academic Training partner organizations can be found here.