Minneapolis city leaders tout success of behavioral crisis unit
MINNEAPOLIS -- The City of Minneapolis says one of its major investments is seeing results. Launched back in December of 2021, the city has spent millions of dollars in growing its behavioral crisis unit. City leaders are seeking to highlight the program's successes.
It wasn't that long ago that Minneapolis didn't have a response plan for mental health emergencies that didn't involve police.
"These mental and emotional distress calls were one of the top five most time-consuming calls for officers, not the top five most dangerous, not the calls that officers felt the most qualified to engage in, but it was still their top five most time-consuming calls," Minneapolis City Councilmember Jeremiah Ellison, of Ward 5, said.
It's now been more than two years since Minneapolis launched a behavioral crisis response (BCR) pilot program. City leaders are calling the pilot a success.
"Since December of 2021, we have been assigned and responded to around 20,000 calls via 911 with zero injuries to service recipients," said Marissa Stevenson, program manager with Canopy Roots.
One first responder, Mike Hamilton, explained how he responded to a 911 call of a man who thought a dog was in his mattress.
"After a brief assessment, my partner and I observed that the recipient was experiencing emotional stress due to a persecutory delusion being that there was a dog after him, and we engaged them in brief intervention, and was able to deescalate the situation successfully," Hamilton said.
City leaders say it's had an interesting effect: more people are calling 911 in crisis, but with the BCR fewer police from short-staffed MPD are having to respond.
"In the wake of the murder of George Floyd, people were scared to call 911 because they didn't want somebody in crisis to be at risk of a police-involved shooting, and they didn't want to have it heavy on their soul that they may have caused that. Now I can go out to my community and proudly say, the very first thing you should do is call 911," Minneapolis City Council President Elliott Payne said.
Next month, the BCR is launching a community advisory board to help shape the future of the unit and the services it provides.
