The Chief of Police for the Houston Police Department (HPD) recommends that City Council approve an Interlocal Agreement between the City of Houston and The Harris Center for Mental Health and Intellectual and Development Disabilities (The Harris Center) for the creation and operation of a Crisis Call Diversion Program.
There has been a steady increase of mental health related calls for service, with an approximate 14% increase since 2010. Mental health-related “crisis calls” for service can be complex and time consuming; however, less than 1% of the 29,000 calls in 2013 resulted in criminal charges being filed. Calls for service involving the mentally ill can be dangerous and volatile, and a preliminary inquiry into mental health-related call codes reflect that many of the calls involve non-imminent situations that could be better served by connecting callers to mental health professionals.
The City of Houston, through HPD, applied for and received an award from the U. S. Department of Justice for the FY15 Justice and Mental Health Collaboration (JMHC) Grant in the amount of $250,000. The primary purpose of the JMHC grant program is to increase public safety by facilitating collaboration among the criminal justice, mental health and substance abuse treatment systems. The Interlocal Agreement between the City of Houston and The Harris Center sets forth the use of the FY15 JMHC award to fund HPD’s 911 Mental Health Crisis Call Diversion Program which seeks to divert eligible non-emergency crisis intervention police calls from HPD to mental health professionals with The Harris Center.