CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In an effort to stem the number of tense situations its officers are facing, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is rolling out its Crisis Response Team this weekend.
The department introduced the team and its mission at a press conference Friday morning, telling media members the team has spent several months in training prior to the launch.
The goal is to better manage situations where mental health issues appear to be a driving factor behind emergency incidents.
One stipulation for the safety of the team members – comprised of eight police officers and six masters-level mental health clinicians – is that they won’t get involved if the suspect has a gun.
The goal for the team’s use is to deploy it in situations before they escalate to that level.
"This team has been established to help us better serve community members experiencing a mental or behavioral health crisis," CMPD Chief Kerr Putney said.
The team – broken down into six groups -- will be available 24/7 and has been a goal of Putney's since an officer shot and killed unarmed Jonathan Farrell in 2013.
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“It’s been a constant search for a potential to prevent some of those outcomes, and this is about as good as we can do right now," Putney said. "We look to expand it in the future.”
The department said it responded to roughly 800 calls last year where an officer on the department’s Crisis Intervention Team was utilized to aid someone experiencing a mental health crisis.
Looking back on those cases, the department identified numerous others times where a Crisis Response Team member could have been utilized earlier on to potentially keep an ongoing situation from devolving over the course of time.
The department emphasized that the new team will give additional support – but not replace – the existing Crisis Intervention Team and training for more than 700 of the department’s officers.
Officer Shannon Finis, a member of the Crisis Response Team, said spending six years working the streets in east Charlotte showed her how critical the need is.
"We have different things going on, be it veterans, homeless, or just people growing up with different mental health issues and they're not getting the help they need," Finis said.
Fonda Bryant, who is a member CMPD's Crisis Intervention Team, said she survived a mental health crisis of her own and has been pushing for a unit of this kind ever since.
"I think it will help," Bryant said. "I think it will help cut down on situations like we just had and future situations."
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