Nov. 15 – Quality Improvement Subcommittee, Mental Health Response Advisory Committee
Covered by Documenter Mildred Seward

Subcommittee members discussed year three of the Cleveland police co-responder program (Credit: screenshot from Case Western Reserve University presentation on the program).
Subcommittee members discussed year three of the Cleveland police co-responder program. Credit: Image from Case Western Reserve University presentation on the program

What happened: Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) officials discussed Cleveland’s co-responder program. The city has five co-responder teams. Each consists of one police officer and one mental-health professional. City Council passed legislation Nov. 7 that aims to double the number of teams. Anya Nazarenko, from CWRU, reviewed statistics from year three of the current co-responder program. She also shared program goals going forward. There was a previous pilot from 2016-2018 in the Second Police District.

No direct feedback: A meeting participant asked if the presenters had interviewed any individuals who have received service from a co-responder team. Nazarenko said they had not. 

Left wondering: Documenter Mildred Seward asked, “According to the presentation, the majority of the crisis response took place in the Fourth Police District, which is a predominantly African American community; are the trained responders of the same ethnic background as the people in need of the service?”

Read more from Documenter Mildred Seward

Learn more about the co-responder expansion legislation from Documenter Najee Hall’s coverage of an Oct. 26 council committee meeting.

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