Improving Police Response to People with Behavioural Health Issues

The source article describes RADAR (Response Awareness, De-escalation, And Referral), a hybrid Crisis Intervention Team (CIT)/co-response program for people with behavioural health issues (PBHI). RADAR improved officers’ understanding of and empathy toward PBHI, and collaboration with a behavioural health professional provided valuable alternatives to law enforcement responses. The researchers could not statistically demonstrate any effects of the program on calls for service or incidents, but concluded that the program’s short-term benefits could set the stage for longer-term success. RADAR offers lessons about sustainability; relationship-building with PBHI and clinicians; and creative technological approaches to data collection and evaluation for similar programs.