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PHOTO BY DAVE DECKERCommunity activists in Tampa have been calling for changes in the conventional police response to mental health crises. And in its own way, the city is now heeding the call.
After more than a year of debate between Tampa city leaders and community activists about the role police officers should play in responding to mental health crisis calls, the Tampa Police Department (TPD) has partnered with the Agency for Community Treatment Services (ACTS) to launch a Behavioral Health Unit.
Proposed as a one-year pilot program, this new unit will have teams of licensed mental health professionals and police officers respond—together—to emergency calls in the community…
