When facts are incorrect, misleading, or completely missing, advocates for change are handicapped in their efforts to propose viable alternatives. Nonetheless, many police agencies lack the time or ability to keep detailed stats on their mental health calls. Thankfully, the Grand Junction Police Department (GJPD) in Colorado was able to track every co-responder call handled during a two-year period between July 2018 and June 2020. The result was a one-of-a-kind analytical look at modern mobile crisis response.

Some police leaders question why they should spend the time and money to develop a special team that handles noncriminal calls, especially when their agencies are already short staffed and their budgets are tight. The numbers from Grand Junction suggest that a crisis response team can reduce repeat callers dialing 911 for mental or behavior issues, can free up uniformed units to handle in-progress criminal calls, can decrease the likelihood of using unnecessary force during a crisis event, and can lower the number of persons with mental illness arrested for misdemeanor crimes.

And, if those reasons aren’t enough, the future of policing is in flux, and it’s important to adapt.