Department recognized by the IACP

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