Crisis Response Team 

The Mission of the Crisis Response Team 

The mission of the Hazelwood Police Department Crisis Response Team is to deliver positive law enforcement crisis intervention service to people with mental illness in the City of Hazelwood such as:

  • Providing cooperative community partnerships of:
    • Advocates
    • Consumers
    • Families
    • Law Enforcement
    • Mental Health Service Providers
  • Coordinating and enhancing services to people with mental illness and/or substance abuse problems through law enforcement based Crisis Response Teams.

The Problem

The problem is 3.5 Million Americans have severe mental illnesses and fewer than 50% receive even minimally adequate treatment. How many of these under-served people are in your community and how much patrol time do they require?

Last Intervention Option

Policing has the unenviable reality of being, in many situations, the last intervention option available. When other crisis intervention professionals are unable to effectively deal with an escalating situation, they have the option of withdrawing and calling for assistance.

Assistance

The police do not have the alternative of dialing 911 when situations intensify. The police are required to respond in circumstances where no other professional will attend. The officer is expected to have the ability to effectively:

  • Advise
  • Communicate
  • Console
  • Counsel
  • Empathize
  • Mediate
  • Protect

The officer is expected to be intelligent and have the physical capacity and willingness to forcibly intervene without malice. The police are expected to calmly and compassionately render assistance to the public while at the same time instilling fear into the criminal element of society.

Crisis Response Team Officers received extensive training in the varying mental health diagnosis’, patterns and identifiers of subjects with mental health issues, as well as resources and problem-solving techniques to assist those in crisis.