ORDINANCE
WHEREAS, over the past year-and-a-half, the City of Chicago has prioritized investments in programs that seek to treat violence as a public health crisis and recognize that many interactions within the criminal justice system are the result of individuals experiencing mental health crises and behavioral challenges; and
'WHEREAS, to address similar goals, cities and counties across the country have increasingly adopted promising alternative responder models to improve the ways in which their police departments and public health professionals engage with people experiencing behavioral health crises; and
WHEREAS, these programs sometimes involve law enforcement and clinicians working together in response lo calls for service involving a person experiencing a behavioral health crisis. These so-called "co-responder" models provide appropriate alternatives to arrest as well as additional options to respond to non-criminal calls; and
WHEREAS, other models have built on the experience of co-responder models and using analysis of calls for service data and information about specific community needs have also spawned responder models in which clinicians, without direct law enforcement involvement, respond to particular calls for service involving mental health or addiction-related issues, among others; and
WHEREAS, through a $1 million program in the 2021 budget, the City of Chicago will pilot alternative responders models to further develop its crisis continuum of care, which includes diversion and crisis intervention among other programs, and which attempts to reduce harm, arrests, and use of jails and emergency departments while promoting the development of and access to quality mental and substance use disorder treatment and services; and
WHEREAS, the models to be tested during the pilot will include both a co-responder model which pairs law enforcement and clinicians and a separate responder model which will be a clinician only, non-law enforcement respon...
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