Subject:
Title
Presentation of the Harrisonburg Police Department’s Connect and Protect Grant Program
Body
Presented By: Todd Miller, Deputy Chief, Harrisonburg Police Department
Recommendation and Review
The City has been awarded a Bureau of Justice Assistance grant for HPD to create a co-response program between law enforcement and mental health professionals, which will improve HPD’s response to issues related to mental health.
Mental health-related calls for service are among the most frequent type of call the HPD receives. Many of these calls require officers to recognize and address mental health-related issues in the field, an calls involving mental health evaluations and hospitalizations can take multiple officers off the street for multiple hours. The department has identified important gaps in mental health services, and this project will help address one of these key gaps by connecting officers in the field with mental health professionals to help address immediate mental health concerns in the community.