Law enforcement personnel often respond to calls for help that fall outside typical police duties. Communities are now looking at how they can shift their approach to public safety by focusing on who should be called when a person is in crisis.
In an Op-Ed for The Baltimore Sun, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Acting Director Kristen Mahoney and Ayesha Delany-Brumsey with the Council of State Governments Justice Center wrote about this topic.
In the Op-Ed, the authors discussed community responder programs and the impact such programs have had. More than 100 such programs have been funded through BJA grants and, under the Connect and Protect program, BJA is investing $20 million to support collaboration between law enforcement and behavioral health providers.
