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?”

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

Cleveland Documenters pays and trains people to cover public meetings where government officials discuss important issues and decide how to spend taxpayer money.