Weeks after the shooting of 25-year-old Victoria Lee in her apartment by a Fort Lee, N.J., police officer, shortly after a 911 call for assistance, state Attorney General Matthew. Platkin announced significant reforms in the protocol for officers dealing with barricaded persons experiencing a mental health crisis, NJ.com reports. The revisions, which follow similar fatal police shootings of individuals suffering from behavioral or mental health emergencies, come after more than a year of study and discussions with law enforcement agencies across the U.S., community support groups and mental health experts. The intention is to ensure that tactical and crisis-negotiation teams responding to such incidents are optimally trained and have essential resources and equipment they need. Calling the mandates involving use of force guidelines “the first of their kind in the country,” Platkin said encounters involving barricaded individuals are “often difficult and high risk.”
The attorney general’s directives will begin to take effect in October. The changes include joining negotiating teams with mental health professionals and even disengaging from the immediate scene as a way of de-escalating the situation. First-responding officers facing a barricaded situation will be advised to wait for “appropriate resources” to respond and not attempt to force a resolution unless that is immediately necessary to prevent injury or death. Tactical teams will also be required to carry less lethal weapons, such as Tasers and impact munitions, to resolve incidents without the use of deadly force. New Jersey already has a program called “Arrive Together,” which pairs police with mental health professionals, but it is not available in every town. Platkin said additional funding under New Jersey’s “ARRIVE Together program,” which he called the only statewide program for alternative responses to behavioral health crises in the U.S., will provide funding to support the implementation of the added directives.
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