131. CDP will build upon and improve its Crisis Intervention Program with the goal of: (a) assisting individuals in crisis; (b) improving the safety of officers, consumers, family members, and others within the community; (c) providing the foundation necessary to promote community and statewide solutions to assist individuals with mental illness; and (d) reducing the need for individuals with mental illness to have further involvement with the criminal justice system. The Crisis Intervention Program will provide a forum for effective problem solving regarding the interaction between the criminal justice and mental health care system and create a context for sustainable change.
A. Mental Health Response Advisory Committee
132. Within 180 days of the Effective Date, CDP and the City will ensure that a Mental Health Response Advisory Committee (“Advisory Committee”) is developed to foster relationships and build support between the police, the community, and mental health providers and to help identify problems and develop solutions designed to improve outcomes for individuals in crisis.
133. The Advisory Committee will include the Crisis Intervention Coordinator and representation from specialized CIT officers. CDP also will seek representation from the Cleveland Municipal Court’s Mental Health Docket, the Ohio Criminal Justice Coordinating Center of Excellence. Cuyahoga County’s Alcohol, Drug Addiction, and Mental Health Services Board (“ADAMHS Board”), FrontLine Services, and any other relevant Cuyahoga County mental health organizations, such as advocacy organizations, homeless service providers, area hospitals, and interested community members.
134. The Advisory Committee will meet regularly and provide guidance to assist COP in improving, expanding, and sustaining its Crisis Intervention Program.
135. On an annual basis, the Advisory Committee will conduct an analysis of crisis intervention incidents to determine whether CDP has enough specialized CIT officers, whether it is deploying those officers effectively, and whether specialized CIT officers, call-takers, and dispatchers arc appropriately responding to people in crisis, and will recommend appropriate changes to policies, procedures, and training regarding police contact with individuals in crisis.
136. The Advisory Committee’s reports and recommendations will be provided to the Commission, will be publicly available, and will be posted on the City’s website.
B. Crisis Intervention Coordinator
137. Within 180 days of the Effective Date, CDP will designate an officer, at the rank of captain or above, to act as a Crisis Intervention Coordinator to better facilitate communication between CDP and members of the mental health community and to increase the effectiveness of CDP’s Crisis Intervention Program.
138. The Coordinator will develop and maintain partnerships with program stakeholders and serve as a point of contact for advocates, individuals, families, caregivers, professionals, and others associated with the mental health community. The Coordinator will be available as a resource at all times during normal business hours.
139. The Coordinator will participate in the Advisory Committee and on a regular basis solicit feedback from the mental health community and specialized CIT officers, calltakers, and dispatchers regarding the efficacy of CDP’s Crisis Intervention Program.
140. The Coordinator will be responsible for coordinating implementation of the changes and recommendations made by the Advisory Committee, as appropriate.
141. The Coordinator will be responsible for ensuring the selection of appropriate candidates for designation as specialized CIT officers. The Coordinator also will be required to ensure that officers, call-takers, and dispatchers are appropriately responding to CIT related calls.
142. The Coordinator will create ways to recognize and honor specialized CIT officers, calltakers, and dispatchers, where appropriate.
C. Crisis Intervention Training
143. CDP will provide training on responding to individuals in crisis to all of its officers and recruits. Within 365 days of the Effective Date, officers will be provided with at least eight hours of initial training, and all officers will receive annual in-service training thereafter. The initial and annual training will be adequate in quality, quantity, type, and scope, and will include the circumstances in which a specialized CIT officer should be dispatched or consulted and how situations involving individuals in crisis should be addressed if a specialized CIT officer is not immediately available. All new recruits will receive at least 16 hours of training in the academy that meets these same requirements.
144. Within 365 days or the Effective Date, and annually thereafter, all CDP call-takers, dispatchers, and their supervisors will receive crisis intervention telecommunicators training that is adequate to enable them to identify, dispatch, and appropriately respond to calls for service that involve individuals in crisis. The training will include identification of individuals in crisis; telephonic suicide intervention; crisis management, de-escalation and scenario-based exercises; interactions with individuals with mental illness; information that should be gathered when the call-taker suspects that the call involves an individual in crisis; and the types of calls that require a specialized CIT response. Any crisis intervention training that already has been provided to call-takers, dispatchers, and their supervisors may be considered to fulfill training requirements under this Agreement for those individuals, if appropriate.
D. Specialized Crisis Intervention Trained Officers
145. CDP will provide enhanced specialized training in responding to individuals in crisis to certain officers (“specialized CIT officers”). Specialized CIT officers will continue to be assigned to the patrol division and will maintain their standard patrol duties, except when called upon to respond to incidents or calls involving individuals in crisis.
146. The enhanced training for specialized CIT officers will be at least 40 hours. This enhanced training will be adequate in quality, scope, and type and will include how to conduct a field evaluation, suicide intervention, community mental health resources, common mental health diagnoses, the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, perspectives of individuals with mental health issues, family members, the rights of persons with mental illness, civil commitment criteria, crisis de-escalation, and scenario-based exercises. This training must include on-site visitation to mental health and substance abuse facilities and interaction with individuals with mental illness and substance abuse disorders. Officers who are designated as specialized CIT officers who already have received 40 hours of appropriate crisis intervention training may be considered to have fulfilled these training requirements.
147. Specialized CIT officers do not have to receive the initial eight hours of training provided to all officers, but must receive eight hours of annual in-service crisis intervention training, which can be the same training provided to all officers, if appropriate.
148. Training and designation as a specialized CIT officer will be voluntary. To be eligible for consideration, officers must have at least three years of experience as a CDP officer.
CDP will provide an in-depth assessment of each applicant to determine the applicant’s fitness to serve as a specialized CIT officer. This assessment will include an examination of the officer’s written application, supervisory recommendations, disciplinary tile, and an in-person interview. Officers with a history of complaints of, or who have been disciplined for, excessive use of force against individuals in crisis will be presumptively ineligible to be specialized CIT officers.
149. Supervisors will identify and encourage qualified officers across all shifts and all Districts to serve as specialized CIT officers.
150. All Field Training Officers will receive the enhanced specialized crisis intervention training described in paragraph 146. Despite having received this training, an FTO will not be designated as a specialized CIT officer unl ess that FTO has volunteered to be a specialized CIT officer and has been selected by the Coordinator.
151. Specialized CIT officers who arc dispatched to an incident involving an individual in crisis will have primary responsibility for the scene. If a supervisor has assumed responsibility for the scene, the supervisor will seek the input of a specialized CIT officer regarding strategies for resolving the crisis where it is reasonable for them to do so.
152. Within 365 days of the Effective Date, the Coordinator will develop an effEctive specialized crisis intervention plan (“Specialized Crisis Intervention Plan”). The goal of the Specialized Crisis Intervention Plan will be to ensure that a specialized CIT officer is available to respond to all calls and incidents that appear to involve an individual in crisis. The Specialized Crisis Intervention Plan will include an assessment of the number of officers necessary to achieve this goal; identification of gaps in coverage of particular shifts or Districts and development of mechanisms to fill those gaps; identification of any barriers to ensuring full coverage and steps to overcome those barriers; and ways to identify qualified officers and to encourage them to apply.
CDP will continually review and revise this plan as barriers to full coverage are identified and addressed. The Specialized Crisis Intervention Plan will take into account the seniority provisions of the Collectively Bargaining Agreement and that CDP may not immediately be able to ensure that a specialized CIT officer is available to respond to all calls or incidents that appear to involve an individual in crisis. Within these constraints, the City will use its best efforts to ensure that a specialized CIT officer responds to all calls and incidents that appear to involve an individual in crisis.
The Monitor will assess the Specialized Crisis Intervention Plan and report to the Parties whether it is appropriate and effective, and whether the City is using its best efforts to implement it.
E. Crisis Intervention Policies and Procedures
153. The Ohio Criminal Justice Coordinating Center of Excellence currently is conducting a peer review of the crisis intervention program in Cuyahoga County. The results of the peer review assessment will be provided to the Advisory Committee, DOJ, and the Monitor. In developing its policies and procedures and the plan required by paragraph 152, the City will consider this assessment and any recommendations contained within it.
154. CDP, with recommendations from the Advisory Committee, will revise its policies to make clear that a crisis intervention response may be necessary even in situations where there has been an apparent law violation.
155. CDP, with recommendations from the Advisory Committee, will revise its current crisis intervention policy to ensure that specialized CIT officers have appropriate discretion to direct individuals with mental health and substance abuse issues to the health care system, rather than the judicial system, in those instances where it is appropriate to do so.
156. CDP’s policies and procedures will make clear that specialized CIT officers, when available, must be dispatched to all calls or incidents that appear to involve an individual in c1isis. CDP will track incidents in which a specialized officer was not dispatched to such calls. In developing and revising the plan required by paragraph 152, CDP will identify any barriers to ensuring that specialized CIT officers were dispatched to these calls, and will include steps to overcome these barriers.
157. CDP will track calls and incidents involving individuals in crisis by gathering, at a minimum, the following data:
a. date, time, and location of the incident;
b. subject’s name, age, gender, race, ethnicity, and address;
c. whether the subject was armed, and the type of weapon;
d. whether the subject is a United States military veteran;
e. name and address of individual calling for service;
f. the reason for the interaction, i.e., suspected criminal conduct or call for assistance;
g. name(s) and badge number(s) of the officer(s) on the scene;
h. whether a supervisor responded to the scene;
i. techniques or equipment officers used;
j. any injuries to officers, subject, or others;
k. disposition of the incident (e.g., defuse, arrest, citation, referral); and i. brief narrative of the event (only if not included in another document).
158. CDP must publicly report this outcome data annually and provide it to the Advisory Committee, aggregated as necessary to protect privacy.
159. CDP will utilize this outcome data to identify training needs and develop case studies and teaching scenarios for crisis intervention training as well as primary and in-service crisis training; to make changes to the crisis training curriculum; to identify safety issues and trends; to recognize and highlight successful individual officer performance; to develop new response strategies for repeat calls for service; and to identify systemic issues that impede CDP’s ability to provide an appropriate response to an incident involving an individual in crisis.