Along with yearly training, many of our officers have attended the 40-hour CIT training course.  CIT provides the foundation necessary to promote community and statewide solutions to assist individuals with a mental illness and/or addictions.

The mental health co-responder is a Johnson County Mental Health (JCMH) employee who is embedded within our Department.  The co-responder’s primary responsibility is to respond on site with a law enforcement officers on calls when mental illness is identified as a factor.  In the short term, this outreach provides a face-to-face professional assessment of immediate safety and risk of the individual(s) involved.  In the longer term, the co-responder can more effectively provide follow-up and engage individuals into services to prevent over-utilization of jails, emergency rooms and continued police response.  Currently, our Department has two Mental Health Co-Responders.  

As you can see in the chart below, the Co-Responder program is of great assistance to our officers on calls for service, and also helps members of the public and their families who are dealing with a crisis.

104 - Code of Ethics

409 - CIT (Crisis Intervention Team) -pending upload