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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.

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Reduce Response Times: Data can inform deployment strategies, ensuring resources for timely response and reduction of officers time spent on calls.

Optimize Staffing: By understanding when and where mental health-related calls are most frequent, agencies can allocate officers and specialized personnel, such as crisis intervention teams (CITs), more effectively. This includes better planning for higher volume call times and regions.

Program Improvement: Data tracking helps agencies assess the impact of interventions like co-responder models or mobile crisis teams, demonstrating how these initiatives can save officer time and improve outcomes for citizens.

Improve Training: Identifying patterns in calls involving mental illness can highlight areas where additional officer training is needed, such as de-escalation techniques.

Leverage Grants: Data can strengthen applications for federal and state grants aimed at improving responses to mental health crises.

Quantify Costs: Detailed tracking can help to quantify the impact of health-related responses, supporting budget requests for mental health partnerships, alternative response systems and officer wellness resources. 

Strengthen Partnerships: Sharing data, when needed, with mental health service providers can foster collaboration, helping agencies build more integrated community response systems

Enhance Community Engagement: Data can guide community outreach programs.

Increase Transparency: Data can improve community trust in community response programs.

Support Diversion Programs: Evidence from data can bolster initiatives that divert individuals from jail to mental health treatment facilities

Studies also suggest that monitoring mental health response data facilitates identification of community health gaps and specialized individual treatment needs. For example, the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center emphasizes the value of tracking behavioral health crisis data to optimize the community response framework. 

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