Law Enforcement-Mental Health Learning Sites

Law Enforcement-Mental Health Learning Sites are a resource for agencies looking to tailor successful implementation strategies and response models to address their own distinct problems and circumstances.

fullstate,abbreviation,x,y,description
Alabama,AL,6,7,
Alaska,AK,0,0,
Arizona,AZ,5,3,"Tucson, AZ, Police Department
Serving roughly 600,000 people, the Tucson police department's Mental Health Support Team (MHST) is a co-responder unit that pairs law enforcement officers with mental health clinicians. The MHST, along with the crisis mobile teams and crisis response center, helps to provide citizens with connections to local supportive services. More Info

Yavapai County, AZ, Sheriff's Office
Serving roughtly 235,000 people, the Yavapai Justice & Mental Health Coalition has partnered with local healthcare providers Terros and Spectrum to ensure that crisis response teams across the 8,000 square mile county can respond to calls in 30 minutes or less. The Sheriff's Office also runs the jail, where all corrections officers are provided with Crisis Intervention Training as well as Mental Health First Aid training. More Info"
Arkansas,AR,5,6,
California,CA,5,2,"Los Angeles, CA, Police Department
Serving roughly 4 million people, the Los Angeles police department's Mental Evaluation Unit includes a 24 hour triage line, co-responder units, follow up case managers, and more. Their 40 hour Mental Health Intervention Training is given to all officers and they also have mental health professionals embedded in the department. More Info"
Colorado,CO,4,3,"Denver, CO, Police Department
Serving roughly 780,000 people, the Denver police department has a co-response team, an outreach case coordination program, and supported the opening of an assessment, intake, and diversion center. The community-led Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) program responds to low-level mental health calls for service. More Info"
Connecticut,CT,3,11,
Delaware,DE,4,9,
Florida,FL,8,8,"Miami-Dade County, FL, Police Department
Serving roughly 1.2 million people, the Miami-Dade County police department operates a co-responder unit, a threat management section that works with individuals who have been placed on psychiatric holds under the Baker Act, and uses their DACOTA data collection program to improve service delivery. Through their partnership with Thriving Mind, ongoing case management services are provided to people who have come into contact with their specialty units. More Info

University of Florida, FL
Serving roughly 80,000 students, staff, and faculty, the University of Florida police department utilizes intensive crisis intervention training, suicide prevention training, and more to ensure mental health calls are handled appropriately. More Info"
Georgia,GA,7,8,
Hawaii,HI,8,0,
Idaho,ID,3,2,
Illinois,IL,3,6,
Indiana,IN,3,7,
Iowa,IA,3,5,
Kansas,KS,5,5,"Wichita, KS, Police Department
Serving roughly 390,000 people, the Wichita police department has an award winning Homeless Outreach Team (HOT), a co-responder unit (Integrated Care Team), and operates a mobile crisis team in conjunction with COMCARE behavioral health. They also have two embedded community support specialists that assist WPD in connecting clients to health services. More Info"
Kentucky,KY,4,6,
Louisiana,LA,6,5,
Maine,ME,0,11,"Portland, ME, Police Department
Serving roughly 64,000 people, the Portland police department has mental health professionals embedded in the agency along with master's level students who support them. They run a co-responder model for responding to mental health calls and are piloting a civilian led response team. More Info"
Maryland,MD,4,8,
Massachusetts,MA,2,10,"Arlington, MA, Police Department
Serving roughly 43,000 people, the Arlington police department has a mental health clinician embedded in the department and operates a variety of innovative programs, including the Jail Diversion Program, Hoarding Response Team, Elder Abuse Prevention Task Force, and Arlington Opiate Outreach Initiative. More Info"
Michigan,MI,2,7,
Minnesota,MN,2,4,
Mississippi,MS,6,6,
Missouri,MO,4,5,
Montana,MT,2,2,
Nebraska,NE,4,4,
Nevada,NV,4,2,
New Hampshire,NH,1,11,
New Jersey,NJ,3,10,
New Mexico,NM,6,3,
New York,NY,2,9,
North Carolina,NC,5,9,
North Dakota,ND,2,3,
Ohio,OH,3,8,
Oklahoma,OK,6,4,
Oregon,OR,4,1,
Pennsylvania,PA,3,9,
Rhode Island,RI ,2,11,
South Carolina,SC,6,8,
South Dakota,SD,3,4,
Tennessee,TN,5,7,"Madison County, TN, Sheriff's Office
Serving roughly 97,500 people, the Madison County Sheriff's Office is part of a inter-agency collaborative that allows them to have a much larger impact on Tennessee. They operate a pre-trial diversion program, connect individuals in crisis to a 24/7 crisis stabilization unit, and handle all mental health transports in the area. More Info"
Texas,TX,7,4,"Bexar County, TX, Sheriff's Department
Serving roughly 2 million people, the Bexar County Sheriff's department uses their Specialized Multidisciplinary Alternative Response Team (SMART) responds to calls where a person is in crisis. SMART is made up of two teams working in tandem; one consisting of two sworn officers, the other is staffed by civilians (a medical EMT and a licensed clinician). More Info

Harris County, TX, Sheriff's Department
Serving roughly 2.1 million people, the Harris County Sheriff's department operates a mobile crisis team, a co-responder unit, and a homeless outreach team. They also have the Clinician and Officer Remote Evaluation (CORE) program, which allows officers to connect with Master’s level trained clinicians to conduct evaluations remotely. More Info

Houston, TX, Police Department
Serving roughly 2.3 million people, the Houston police department has CIT trained officers, a co-responder unit, a homeless outreach team, and runs the chronic consumer stabilization initiative. Through its partnership with the Harris Center, it embeds mental health clinicians inside the city's dispatch center to operate the Crisis Call Diversion (CCD) program. More Info"
Utah,UT,5,4,"Salt Lake City, UT, Police Department
Serving roughly 186,000 people, the Salt Lake City police department operates the Community Connection Center, which houses their crisis intervention team, homeless outreach team, and community connections team. The Community Connections Team (CCT) consists of case managers, therapists, and law enforcement working together to address mental health calls. More Info"
Vermont,VT,1,10,
Virginia,VA,5,8,
Washington,WA,2,1,
West Virginia,WV,4,7,
Wisconsin,WI,2,5,"Madison, WI, Police Department
Serving roughly 255,000 people, the Madison police department employs a full time mental health team made up of officers trained to be mental health liaisons and civilian crisis workers. They have a robust training regimine for officers and have a full time behavioral health data analyst to help improve service delivery. More Info"
Wyoming,WY,3,3,

Jurisdictions around the country are exploring strategies to improve the outcomes of encounters between law enforcement and people who have mental health needs.

The CSG Justice Center, with support from a team of national experts and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), began the program in 2010 as a way to help public safety personnel implement effective responses to people with mental health needs. The program started with an initial group of six highly innovative agencies serving as peer-to-peer learning sites. Since then, it has continued to expand and regularly deliver assistance and training to law enforcement and mental health practitioners nationwide.

The learning site project creates a forum for policing officials to learn from one another on how to adapt responses to people with mental illnesses, ensuring officers are better able to connect them to needed services, while increasing public safety, reducing arrests, and saving vital agency resources.

Michael Sauschuck, Commissioner, Maine Department of Public Safety

Portland Police Department

Visit the Law Enforcement-Mental Health Collaboration Support Center to request assistance. The center offers free training, resources, and support to communities wanting to improve their law enforcement and community responses to people with behavioral health conditions or intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Request Free Support

FAQ

What kinds of assistance do the learning sites provide?

The Law Enforcement-Mental Health Learning Sites Program offers various levels of assistance to law enforcement officials and mental health professionals interested in planning or improving their police-mental health collaborations to better respond to people with mental health needs.

Learning sites can provide peer support services through:

E-mail exchanges to provide guidance and resources
Conference calls to discuss complex issues and strategic planning assistance
Hosting agency visits or providing on-site assistance

What are the areas of specialization for each of the learning sites?

The learning sites offer a wide range of expertise related to various law enforcement-mental health collaborations involving crisis intervention training, co-responder models with follow-up teams, comprehensive dispatcher training, embedded mental health professionals, and police officers trained as mental health liaisons. For information on areas of expertise, please click on individual learning sites for more detailed descriptions.

If I already know which learning site I want to work with, can I contact it directly?

You are welcome to make direct contact with the learning site(s) of your choice. Contact information for Learning Site representatives can be found at the bottom of each site’s individual page.

Will there be a cost associated with receiving assistance from a learning site?

Assistance is provided to law enforcement and behavioral health agencies at no cost in an effort to encourage the development or implementation of PMHCs nationwide. The only potential cost associated with receiving technical assistance from the program is if an agency wishes to visit 1 of the 15 Learning Sites in person. In that case, the requesting agency would cover the travel costs of bringing their team to the site. If the agency requesting does not have the funding to cover travel expenses, they can reach out to The CSG Justice Center to inquire about available travel funds, which are occasionally made available on a case-by-case basis.

What is the relationship between the CSG Justice Center and the learning sites?

The CSG Justice Center manages and provides staff support to the learning sites and develops resources that can be tailored to the distinct needs of jurisdictions. Staff work closely with the learning sites to help match the expertise and resources each site offers to the needs of law enforcement agencies.