Title
Phoenix Police Department Behavioral Health Response Approaches
Description
This report provides the Public Safety and Justice Subcommittee with information regarding the programs and initiatives the Police Department has implemented to improve the police response to behavioral health-related calls for service.
THIS ITEM IS FOR INFORMATION AND DISCUSSION.
Report
Summary
The Phoenix Police Department has been challenged with providing effective services and care to individuals encountered who suffer from behavioral health issues. The department has strived to decriminalize mental illness by providing intelligent, compassionate, meaningful connections to care and appropriate services rather than incarceration.
During the past 18 months, with collaborative partners seeking to shift and share the responsibility of caring for those suffering with behavioral health challenges, the department launched multiple programs and implemented various procedures modeled after national best practices. The intent of the initiatives highlighted in this report is to improve the department’s overall response to behavioral health-related calls for service.
911 Behavioral Health Deflection Program: In February 2019, crisis intervention and crisis system overview training was provided to 911 Communications Operators and Dispatchers. Staff can divert appropriate calls for service to the Crisis Response Network (CRN) rather than dispatch a police officer. The plan includes a CRN Supervisor that is co-located 20 hours per week in the Police Department’s call center to assist with decision-making and to serve as a liaison when diverting calls to CRN. To date in 2020, more than 2,000 calls have been diverted to CRN.
One Mind Campaign: The department committed to the International Association of Chiefs of Police One Mind Campaign. This is an award winning, evidence-based training program for members of the community and law enforcement with the goal of ensuring successful interactions between police officers and persons affected by mental illness. To date 844 patrol officers have been trained.
Meeting with Community: In September 2019, staff met with all Phoenix Police Advisory Board members to discuss mental health issues, crisis response and treatment needs in the community along with planned steps to further improve. Board Members recommended additional mental health training for School Resource Officers (SROs). SRO’s attended “Adolescent Mental Health Training” from the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO).
Smart Notifications for First Responders: This is a best practices model of an alert system for responding officers related to specific addresses. A resident may request a responding officer to be alerted that a resident at the address experiences behavioral health issues. This program is in the final stages of development and is expected to launch at the end of November. Arizona State University is a partner in this effort.
Crisis Intervention Team: The Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) is an innovative first-responder model of police-based crisis intervention with community, health care and advocacy partnerships. Our mission is to provide law enforcement-based crisis intervention by assisting individuals with a mental illness, and improving the safety of patrol officers, consumers, family members, and citizens within the City of Phoenix. The department has two full-time CIT squads who collaborate with behavioral health partners to connect members of the community to the proper crisis services. Ninety percent of the department’s sworn personnel have completed basic CIT training. Currently there are 540 sworn employees who are fully CIT certified, of which 300 work in the Patrol Division.
Crisis Intervention Team Clinician Embedded Response Pilot: In November 2019, the Phoenix Police Department, in partnership with Crisis Prevention and Recovery (CPR) embedded a licensed clinical social worker in the CIT Unit. This clinician is assigned to the CIT unit 40-hours per week and co-responds with them to behavioral health crisis calls for service.
Patrol Crisis Intervention Referral System: As of November 2019, patrol officers may flag an incident for a CIT referral. When this flag occurs, CIT detectives are then notified of the need for possible mental health services, follow-up and system navigation. Referrals are worked by a contracted behavioral health clinician along with CIT detectives. The department is averaging about 20 referrals a day.
Handle with Care: This is a national best practice program that partners schools with law enforcement to support children who have been touched by crime, either as victims or as bystanders. Post exposure to trauma these children have the propensity to display behavioral health systems. The department was prepared to implement a pilot program in one of the precincts, however, the effort stalled due to school closures associated with the pandemic. The pilot will be revisited once the schools re-open.
Mobile Team Pilot: This pilot began in March 2020 with two squads from Desert Horizon Precinct. The goal was to identify ways to improve the existing co-responder model with crisis mobile teams by collecting data on interactions between crisis teams and patrol officers. Arizona State University was our research partner in evaluating the effectiveness of the program. There were 19 items of interest learned in this project and six approaches of alignment identified during this pilot.
Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative: Two department executive staff members are part of the eight-member multi-agency team working to enhance the City response to people with behavioral health challenges. The team is working to engage an extended network of stakeholders to develop a plan to provide universal training to frontline city staff across departments to provide education, resources and response options when they encounter someone who may be in crisis with an emphasis on providing connection to services. Additionally, the team is seeking ways to make more information available to community members about available resources and services.
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Assistant City Manager Milton Dohoney, Jr. and the Police Department.