Improving Cleveland’s crisis intervention response rates

In the Mental Health Response Advisory Committee’s (MHRAC) first Data & Growth Subcommittee meeting, Lt. John Mullin reported an uptick in the response rate for the police crisis intervention team (CIT).

Mullin said that the CIT response rate, which is the rate at which responses to mental health crisis calls to the police include a CIT-trained officer, increased from 38.98% in 2023 to 42.08% in 2024 as of April 2. Randolph Dupont, a member of the Cleveland Police Monitoring Team, compared it to Seattle’s much higher CIT response rates. Seattle, which was approved in 2023 to partially phase out its federal consent decree, reported a CIT response rate of 82% in 2020.

Mullin said that the Cleveland Division of Police has 116 CIT-trained officers on staff as of Feb. 27. There are three more CIT trainings planned this year. The goal is 20 officers per class, according to Mullin.

Angela Cecys, the Department of Public Health’s senior strategist for public health and safety, said that she will research CIT response rates in other cities under consent decrees. She will also look at their strategies to increase response rates.

Direct feedback on CIT training

Meeting attendees also discussed methods for collecting police officers’ input on CIT training.

Cecys said a goal of the Data & Growth Subcommittee is to gather officer input on the effectiveness of the training.

Shandra Benito, a member of the Community Police Commission who coordinates with MHRAC, suggested using surveys and focus groups to hear from officers directly about their experiences.

Carole Ballard, director of Education and Training for the Cuyahoga County Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board, questioned whether CIT training fell under this subcommittee’s review. MHRAC also has a Training Subcommittee, which Ballard chairs. The Training Subcommittee has received similar updates regarding CIT training and also sends out officer surveys on training. Ballard said that additional surveys may create confusion for officers.

Read the notes from Documenter Tucker Handley:

Read the live-tweet thread from Documenter Gennifer Harding-Gosnell:

Suggested Reading

Here’s how some Northeast Ohio cities are responding to calls for mental health crises 

Care response and co-response are different ways to achieve the same goal: getting people in crisis the help they need.

by Stephanie Casanova April 2, 2024April 5, 2024