PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Officials in New Jersey are expanding a policing and mental health program which they say has been highly successful over its first few months.
Arrive Together launched in late November 2021, exclusively with New Jersey State Troopers based at stations in Bridgeton and Port Norris, Cumberland County.
“We implemented what is truly a much-needed partnership between law enforcement and our mental health service providers, which is a crisis response initiative that we’re now expanding to Elizabeth and Linden,” said New Jersey acting Attorney General Matthew Platkin. His office says those two efforts will be in tandem with their police departments.
He added that this program has diverted people away from the criminal justice system.
“It was a plainclothes police trooper in an unmarked car in partnership with a certified mental health screener,” said Platkin. “The goal is to respond to calls involving behavioral health or mental health crisis.“
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He explained that throughout the pilot program, there have been zero uses of force when the Arrive Together team comes to a scene.
Additionally, the Attorney General’s office said that ARRIVE teams will check back with those whom they have helped, while also proactively visiting people whom law enforcement has been informed could benefit from their efforts before a crisis situation happens.
“These are the cases that are most likely to result in use of force. We know that a significant proportion of incidents that involve use of force, including the incidents that involve the use of deadly force, involve an incident of mental health or emotional distress,” said Platkin.
As Arrive Together expands, officials say they will make sure to tailor that program to work for those different communities and talk to different stakeholders about how these programs can work just as effectively.
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