By Hannah Armstrong
The Frederick City Police has created a three-person mobile mental health unit to help citizens facing mental health crises.
The unit, called the crisis car, contains a co-responder crisis team intended to help deescalate situations where individuals may be facing mental health crises.
The crisis car team launched in July of 2021 as a pilot program to respond to mental health emergencies, said Samantha Long, Frederick City Police’s public information officer.
“Our chief of police at FPD, Chief Lando, decided we needed an approach to addressing mental health due to an increased amount of calls involving mental health and substance abuse,” Long said.
The crisis car was created in partnership with Frederick’s Division of Fire and Rescue Services as well as Shepherd Pratt, which is a large nonprofit that specializes in mental health issues.
The crisis car contains a crisis response team made up of three individuals: a Frederick police officer, a paramedic from Frederick Division of Fire and Rescue Services, and a professional health provider from Shepherd Pratt.
“I haven’t seen any other programs yet where they pair all three disciplines,” Lando said. “Typically, programs are a collaboration between two entities, such as law enforcement and social workers.”
As of February 2023, the Frederick Police Department assigned two officers to the car. The Mental Health Association of Frederick County trains the officers selected to work in the crisis car.
“Basically, what they do is they will listen to the fire scanner as well as the police scanner, and they will respond to calls that they think would involve someone who is having a mental crisis or someone with substance abuse issues,” Long said.
Because the program is newer to Frederick, the protocol for dispatch is structured differently than how other 911 calls are handled.
“Here in Frederick, we don’t put that responsibility on our dispatchers, as they are already very busy,” Lando said. “We don’t want to also ask them to determine if a call should be routed to the crisis car.”
The officer and fire personnel listen to the scanner and determine where the call is being dispatched to and look at records to see if any violent calls or incidents have occurred at the location in the past. The mental health provider is also equipped with a cell phone connected with the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
If these professionals determine the call is something they can handle, Lando says that they let dispatchers know they are aware and responding to the situation.
The paramedic and the health professional jump into action if there is an overdose or mental health incident that requires medical attention.
Long stated the main goal of the crisis car is to provide individuals suffering from mental health crises with the proper care and resources needed, as they do not necessarily need to be arrested or only be met by a police officer.
Lando also discussed how Frederick’s program is structured to best ensure the safety of both the individual making the call and the personnel working in the vehicle.
“A lot of these programs around the country remove the police from the equation all together,” Lando said. “One of the reasons why we elected in Frederick to keep a police officer in the car is for safety.”
When the crisis car is dispatched, the officer’s role is to assess the situation and provide assistance, when necessary. Although the EMT and mental health provider mainly handle the situation, the officer is available in case protection or back up is required.
“As we know, mental health calls can go in various directions, so we don’t know until we get on the scene if it is going to be safe for the co-responders,” Lando said.
The crisis car program recently received a brand-new vehicle to send the crisis response team out in. The vehicle is not a police cruiser or an ambulance, but rather a van decorated with the logos of the three participating organizations.
The program currently runs five days a week, Monday through Friday from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m., but Long said in the case of an emergency the crisis team could be called in outside of these hours.
From the start of the year through April 3, 2023, the crisis car has responded to 272 calls for service, demonstrating the high demand for a program of this kind.
The Frederick Police Department has been awarded $280,000 in grants from the Department of Justice to help expand and continue the crisis car program.
Additionally, the program is backed by multiple politicians such as Frederick Mayor Michael O’Connor, Congressman David Trone, and Senator Chris Van Hollen.
The program is expected to continue, and many other police departments nationally and even internationally have reached out to the Frederick Police Department for advice and suggestions on how to start their own programs.