Brookline Police have been recognized as having completed the IACP, International Association Of Chiefs Of Police, One Mind Campaign.
Press Release
Police Response to Persons
Affected By Mental Illness: The One Mind Campaign
Brookline,
Massachusetts—The Brookline Police Department is pleased to announce
that they have completed a pledge they took to improve their response to those
suffering from mental illness in their community. The pledge is part of an
initiative called the One Mind Campaign started by the International Association
of Chiefs of Police (IACP), a 30,000 member professional association for law
enforcement that provides training, technical assistance, and recruitment
services. To join the One Mind Campaign, law enforcement agencies must pledge
to implement four promising practices in a 12-36 month period to ensure
successful future interactions between police officers and persons with mental
illness.
In the law enforcement community,
mental illness has become a common focus, with some departments estimating that
as many as 20% of their calls for service are related to mental health declines.
Former Police Chief Dan O’Leary made the decision to join the International
Association of Chiefs of Police’s One Mind Campaign to ensure that we continue
to demand a standard of excellence for all of our officers with respect to
treatment of individuals with mental illness.
To complete the One Mind Pledge, the Brookline
Police Department was asked to do the following: 1.) establish a sustainable
partnership with a local mental health organization, 2.) develop and implement
a model policy to address officers’ interactions with those affected by mental
illness, 3.) ensure that ALL of their officers receive some type of mental
health awareness training and 4.) Commit to twenty percent of the department completing
the more intensive Crisis Intervention Training.
The 40-hour Crisis Intervention
curriculum is designed to train officers to respond to calls that involve
individuals with mental health disorders. The curriculum includes education on
various de-escalation techniques as well as live role-play scenarios of
officers responding to persons who need mental health assistance. Due to a generous grant from the
Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, The Brookline Police Department was
established as one of four regional CIT-Technical Training and Assistance
Centers in the state, and is responsible for training and supporting officers
across Norfolk County, Newton and Boston who are looking to improve their
responses to individuals and families in crisis.
Acting Chief Mark Morgan added, “Day after day, Brookline
police officers display outstanding performance in a variety of situations and
consistently demonstrate their commitment to providing the highest quality of
police service to the public. The additional training opportunities encouraged
by the One Mind Campaign, as well as the relationships we have established with
our community partners, including the Brookline Community Mental Health Center,
Brookline District Court, the School Department, the Council on Aging and NAMI
Massachusetts, allow us to assist some of our most vulnerable citizens when
they are in crisis. As we move forward, we will continue to work to improve the
services we provide to the community”.
For more information about the One
Mind Campaign, please visit the IACP’s website: http://www.theiacp.org/onemindcampaign/.
A list of all agencies who have taken the pledge is also available there. For
more information about the Brookline Police Department’s program, please visit
their website at http://www.brooklinepolice.com
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