Nashville expanding mental health worker, police partnership

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Nashville announced that it will expand a pilot project that pairs mental health professionals with police after the program’s first seven months yielded promising results.

The announcement comes roughly a week after nine law enforcement officers — including six from Metro Nashville Police — fatally shot a man walking on Interstate 65. Officers speaking to him for about 30 minutes failed to de-escalate the situation. Landon Eastep's wife, Chelesy Eastep, later told reporters her husband had woken up “agitated” and decided to go for a walk to calm down. Eastep’s death sparked a call for greater focus on mental health crisis response.

The Partners in Care program teams masters-level clinicians with Nashville officers on calls flagged as potential mental health crises. The pilot launched in June 2021 and will continue through June 2022. The city last week announced plans to expand the services from two precincts to three and offer additional resources to the county’s remaining five precincts, the Tennessean reported.

Results from the second quarter released last week showed clinicians accompanied police on 247 calls. Only 4% resulted in arrest and fewer than 1% resulted in use of force. In nearly 35% of those calls, someone was transported to a hospital or the Crisis Treatment Center.

“It is the right resource at the right time, and certainly last week’s tragic incident demonstrates the importance of this work,” Metro Senior Policy Advisor on Public Health and Safety Dia Cirillo said during a presentation of the program’s second quarter report.

All Nashville precincts have access to the city’s mobile crisis team, but the Partners in Care program allows clinicians to arrive on scene with officers to provide immediate assessments.

“When somebody’s...