Subject:
Title
Presentation on the Marcus-David Peters Act (“The Marcus Alert”)
Body
Presented By: Ellen Harrison, Executive Director of the Harrisonburg-Rockingham CSB
Recommendation and Review
The Marcus-David Peters Act is named in honor of Marcus-David Peters, a young, Black, biology teacher and VCU graduate who was fatally shot by Richmond Police in 2018 in the midst of a behavioral health crisis. It was signed into law in November 2020 by Governor Northam. It builds on earlier efforts to improve outcomes for individuals experiencing similar crises when they interact with the criminal justice system. The Act seeks to ensure that the behavioral health system is the first responder in such situations, to the extent possible, and that when law enforcement must be the first responders, the response is specialized and informed by additional training.