More police agencies across the U.S. are adopting alternative responses to calls involving mental health crises.
Co-responder teams bring qualified mental or behavioral health professionals to police emergency responses calls. In a new study, researchers surveyed local and state law. enforcement agencies to determine the prevalence and use of these teams.
They found wide.variation in the types of teams and how they operate. The study, by researchers at George Mason University and the University of Wyoming, appears in Policing: An International Journal.
“Our survey is the first to examine the prevalence and characteristics of law enforcement co-responder programs in the United States,” said Cynthia Lum, professor of criminology, law, and society at George Mason University, a study co-author. “Our findings represent a first step in evaluating the effectiveness of these programs and in turn, developing evidence-based guidelines and protocols for their implementation.”
Lum's work is promoted by the NCJA Crime and Justice Research Alliance, funded by the National
Criminal Justice Association.
Since the deinstitutionalization of state mental hospitals in the 1960s, law enforcement has been the primary responder to people experiencing a mental health crisis.
The practice has come under scrutiny as a result of high-profile officer-involved deaths of people experiencing mental health crises.
In the study, 568 agencies from all regions completed a survey between May 2022 and May 2023; 70%
were local, county, or regional police departments; 24% were sheriff’s offices; and 3.5% were state or highway patrol agencies.
The study found wide variations in staffing, operations, qualifications, and characteristics of co-responder programs, as well as in respondents’ beliefs about their effectiveness.
It fund a lack of consistent programmatic guidance to inform programs’ development, which results in personnel and funding challenges to implementing and maintaining co-responder programs.
Among the findings:
-- Nearly 88% of responding agencies had officers certified to be part of crisis intervention
teams (CITs) and 41% reported having a co-responder program.
--Of the 232 agencies with co-responder teams, almost half (45.7%) started their program
since 2020, 39% of the agencies had just one co-responder or qualified mental health
professional to respond to calls with an officer; 32% had two to three
teams, 12% had four to six teams, and 9% had seven or more teams.
-- Only 19% of responding agencies had co-responder teams available around the clock;
55% had teams operating on certain days and times, and 53% said when teams were not
in operation, they were available to assist over the phone or by radio.
--48% of agencies said co-responders received no additional training from law enforcement
agencies. Of the 48% that did provide training, the most common was maintaining personal
and officer safety, followed by guidance on police procedures and culture, state laws, and use of force.
--Only 31% of responding agencies had some plan to evaluate or track the effectiveness of
their co-responder teams by assessing outcomes such as use of force, arrests, officers’
time spent on calls, repeat calls, and hospitalization. Evaluation and tracking were
sometimes tied to how programs were funded or managed.
“Our study suggests that several characteristics of co-responder programs are ripe for
evaluation, including qualifications and training for mental health professionals and officers;
protocols for implementation and operation; assessments of officer buy-in; understanding of data
collection necessary for evaluating outcomes; and recommendations for building relationships
with the community, between agencies, and with stakeholders,” said notes Clair Uding, associate
professor of criminal justice and sociology at the University of Wyoming, who led the study.
“While jurisdictions and communities are unique, efforts to better document programs’
development and encourage agencies to evaluate and share their information about effectiveness
or lack thereof can help inform others who have adopted or want to adopt these programs.”
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