Police Response to People with Mental Illnesses in a Major U.S. City: The Boston Experience with the Co-Responder Model

Abstract

ABSTRACTLike most major city police agencies, the Boston Police Department (BPD) serves a sizeable population of individuals with behavioral health challenges. In 2017, the BPD received a total of 681,546 calls for service; of those, 5,953 calls specifically involved people with mental illnesses. To better meet the needs of these individuals, the BPD has a strong history of working with the Boston Emergency Services Team (BEST) of the Boston Medical Center. This partnership resulted in the creation of the BPD’s co-response program, which was launched in January 2011 as a means to team Boston police officers with BEST clinicians. The goal of the program is to provide community-based psychiatric crisis services to stabilize nonviolent persons experiencing psychiatric emergencies, diverting these individuals from arrest and the criminal justice system when appropriate. In this article, we explore the development and implementation of the co-response model, both nationally and in Boston. Next, using quantitative co-responder data, we examine short-term outcomes of the BPD co-responder program. Finally, using qualitative data from officer interviews, we discuss the perspectives of police officers on the utility and effectiveness of the co-responder approach in Boston.