Caption: AI Solutions Boost Public Safety Capacity to Record and Retrieve Information
Over the past two decades, justice, law enforcement, and behavioral health agencies have been expanding to include new community-based roles focused on coordinating referrals across justice intercepts with local agencies and supportive services.
Law enforcement agencies are increasingly on the front lines of behavioral health crises. Teams like co-responders, CIT units, and crisis intervention specialists are responsible for bridging the gaps between public safety and behavioral health in the community—but the complexity of their work often goes unsupported even with the right tools. This article will identify some of the core reasons we believe law enforcement agencies need to be equipped with case management solutions that are specialized for community response.
Caption: A 2022 review of mental health-related calls for service (CFS) in a rural Virginia region, reveals a 10% increase in call volume over three years, with the sharpest growth (47.6%) in rural townships. The review highlights the need for comprehensive local data systems mapping, noting that over 30% of mental health crisis calls were not reported in call type search.
Tracking the law enforcement response to mental health crises using standardized data fields is crucial improve the hidden costs associated with crisis and in supporting transformative research and evaluation of the effectiveness of interventions. Robust methods for measuring and monitoring law enforcement response often involve a combination of data collected in response to 9-1-1 calls for service, specialized field-based performance tracking, and program evaluation. General industry guidance emphasizes the importance of maintaining clearly defined and standardized data collection protocol.
