Chattanooga Police Department Launches New Mental Health Crisis Response Unit

The Chattanooga Police Department (CPD) launched a pilot mental health crisis unit. The unit is funded in part by a grant of nearly $1 million from Volunteer Behavioral Health. CPD has trained officers to be members of a crisis intervention team; the new approach pairs a licensed clinical behavioral health professional with a trained police officer.

The grant of from Volunteer Behavioral Health is for $980,000 over 21 months. It is funding eight positions that will serve seven counties in Middle and East Tennessee. It is focused on those counties with the most calls involving people struggling with their . . .