Guiding Principles for the Development of Police-Replacement Models

12 Guiding Principles for the Development of Police-Replacement Models .

Based upon its analysis of information contained in the available literature and the information and professional opinions shared by stakeholders who were interviewed in guided interviews, the Project has developed the following twelve (12) fundamental guiding principles for developing or modifying response systems that currently place people with mental illness in danger.

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Replacement of Police Officers as First Responders.

Review the legal, ethical and cultural factors that support replacement of police officers as first responders in the majority of circumstances where a call for assistance for a person in acute mental health crisis has been made.

Engage Community Stakeholders.

Engage diverse stakeholders to discuss a non-police response model.

Communities are urged to take the time required to accomplish such engagement and digest the information gained during the engagement process. Stakeholders must be kept apprised of all critical benchmarks in the development process.

Communities should not succumb to demands for identification of a model and plan for implementation by federal or state entities which provide an inadequate timeline in which to make critical decisions.

Stakeholders must avoid the “us vs. them” distinctions between the community at large and people with mentally ill. It should be recognized by all stakeholders that people with mental illness are members of the community that members of the community may have current or past mental illness, and that police officers also develop mental illness. By breaking down these barriers, and acknowledging that mental health crisis can occur to anyone, stakeholders can consider what kind of crisis response they would want for themselves or their loved ones.

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Utilize Data.

Utilize a data-driven approach to develop alternative response models. Consider patterns of response outcomes in individual neighborhoods and particularized impact on BIPOC individuals. Where relevant data is not immediately available, every effort should be made to access such data before critical determinations are made regarding the models being considered.

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Create the Model That is Right for Your Community.

Evaluate the unique cultural dynamics of the community to develop a model for respond to community members needing mental health assistance. This includes attaining stakeholder input about community goals and priorities, examining other successful models, and exploring new creative solutions and the means to attain them.

Work for Consensus on Community Safety.

Seek consensus, based on feedback from diverse stakeholders, about what factors will be used to determine when dispatchers shift from initiating a presumptive non-police response to initiating a high-acuity response that includes police officers. Community discussion must consider the harms that result from addressing mental health crisis from a criminal perspective.

Carefully Consider Mechanism of Dispatch.

Careful consideration should be given to how a caller places a request for assistance. Where the traditional 9-1-1 system is being considered, stakeholders must acknowledge that the police department, using traditional dispatch protocols within its purview, may maintain a high level of control over response determinations. Where an alternative number and/or platform for communication is being considered, a protocol for collaborative evaluation of some calls for assistance will be required. Where stakeholders are considering an alternative number/platform, they must consider the need for a robust public education campaign to inform the public when and how the new system is to be accessed.

Stakeholders must consider developing the right professional profile for dispatch personnel, and the need for robust and continuing training which integrates dispatch personnel into training provided to response team members.

Identify the Right Professionals for First Response.

First response should include a multidisciplinary teams of professionals who are uniquely suited to the important task of safely assisting people in acute mental health crisis. Team members may include mental health professionals, emergency services professionals and peer specialists whose skills compliment and support those of other team members. Communities should not rule out creation of team positions for individuals who combine elements of these disciplines and others, providing for development of a specialized vocation ideally suited to the agreed-upon standards of community stakeholders, including people with mental illness.

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Incorporate Robust and Sustained Training.

Training must be comprehensive and reinforced to regularly incorporate information derived from stakeholder experiences. Training should be culturally competent and explicitly trauma informed, including the implications of vicarious trauma. Training should place the work in a historical context, encouraging understanding of how police culture and the experiences of BIPOC community members’ impact on behaviors exhibited during response. Wherever practicable, team members should be trained together to enhance the value of multidisciplinary exchange and support team cohesion. Training should adhere to the principles of “recovery-oriented” services that de-emphasizes coercion and emphasizes participant choice whenever possible, so that crisis workers are not used as de-facto police officers.

Revise Training for Police Officers Responding to HighAcuity Calls.

Where police officers in new response models will respond only in designated high-acuity situations and in the context of a team response model, police officer training should be revised to reflect the role of the police officers in relation to other team members. Police officer training should also be immediately adapted to incorporate information (as set forth above) regarding the intersections of mental health and race, the unique impacts of such events on BIPOC communities, the impacts of such events on children with mental illness, and the need to view all people in crisis as representative of multiple identities. Police training must be regularly updated and, to every degree practicable, integrated into the training of other team members and dispatchers with whom they will partner.

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Adopt A Presumption Against Non-Confinement.

Communities should develop a model that embraces a presumption against non-confinement, including emergency admission into acute care facilities, where other available options are appropriate. Inherent in this presumption is a community commitment to develop and cultivate mental health services and supportive housing options. Response team training should consistently emphasize this presumption.

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Incorporate Localized Mental Health Services.

Stakeholders should examine existing neighborhood mental health services, and cultivate and support expansion of creative new services by highly localized providers that support objectives of the chosen model. Where commitment of resources to a new response model is matched with commitment to highly localized non-acute mental health services, the potential for acute mental health crises, and the potential for tragedy, will be reduced.

Commit to Transparency and Adaptation.

Communities should commit to full transparency in reports back to the community on model successes and failures. This commitment must include addressing any deficiencies in modification of original policies and procedures, with priority given to those which directly impact on the safety of people in mental health crisis and response team members.

DRNY is supported at taxpayer expense by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Administration on Disabilities; the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration; U.S. Department of Education, Rehabilitation Services Administration; and, the Social Security Administration. This document does not represent the views, positions or policies of, or the endorsements, by any of these federal agencies.