Minneapolis launches program to deploy mental health responders

Minneapolis launched its behavioral crisis response program Monday, prepared to deploy unarmed mental health professionals to certain emergencies rather than police.

Two-member teams can now respond to 911 calls about behavioral or mental health-related crises to provide crisis intervention, counseling or a connection to support services.

The city's Office of Performance and Innovation (OPI) developed the program as part of the City Council's 2020 Safety for All Plan. It uses money originally budgeted for the Police Department to fund alternative approaches to addressing public safety. In July, the office awarded Canopy Mental Health & Consulting a two-year, $6 million contract to provide the staff for the teams.

The program was scheduled to launch in August, but faced delays.

"By using a design process that requires all solutions to problems be co-built with residents, who are also the end users, we are confident that we are now providing another alternative police response that will be trusted, impactful and supported by the people that need these services," OPI Director Brian Smith said in a news release.

911 dispatchers will decide whether an incident is eligible for such a response. The news release said the teams won't respond to incidents involving firearms or violent behavior, and police will be sent only if the dispatcher determines a need to clear the scene or the response team requests assistance.

At the council's Public Health and Safety Committee meeting Dec. 2, Smith said: "Some of it is actually getting a little emotional when you get to a point where you have so much engagement with the public to find out what they really want, have some tough conversations — not always friendly conversations — but get to a place where you can synthesize all that information and get people what they want."

Part of what the community wants, he said, is 24-hour service from the response teams. As of Monday's launch, two mobile units will operate 7:30 a.m. to midnight, Monday through Friday. Each unit consists of two Canopy-provided responders.

Smith said Canopy is hiring additional staff so that the city can eventually offer 24-hour service. As of the Dec. 2 meeting, the provider had a staff of two supervisors, a program manager and 14 responders.

The city said residents can recognize the behavioral crisis response teams by their casual, navy blue uniform: a T-shirt that reads "behavioral crisis response," all capitalized, and a matching quarter-zip pullover and beanie, featuring the Canopy Roots and city logos.