Kansas Expands Law Enforcement Crisis Intervention Program To Nine More Cities

On July 18, 2016, Johnson County, Kansas announced that nine additional cities in the county were participating in the Johnson County Mental Health Center’s co-responder program. The program supports police by pairing a mental health professional to provide crisis intervention assistance on calls involving people with potential mental health or addiction disorder issues. The county’s announcement noted that in 2015, dispatchers called for a mental health co-responder to assist on 1,184 combined calls in Olathe and Overland Park. Of those calls, 1.9% resulted in jail placement, and 4.1% resulted in transport to an . . .