Salt Lake City, Utah: Community Connection Team (CCT)

Location

• City: Salt Lake City, Utah
• Population Size: 200,567
• Jurisdiction Size: 111.11 sq miles

Intercept

• CCT (Community Connection Team)

CIT

• Every officer goes through CIT training during the academy.
• Would rather have officers out there with training than waiting a year or two and having dire consequences.
• More convenient to do it during the academy than to try and bring everyone back
• Their social workers do the CIT training
• When they are dispatching MH calls, they request a CIT officer if one is available.
• The CIT multi-county collaboration:
  • Provides 40-hour training for patrol and corrections-based academies
  • Operates a dedicated CIT Investigative Unit with a detective to follow up on mental health calls for service
• Additional training includes:
  • Crisis Intervention Team for youth: 8-hour academy
  • Autism training: Two 5-hour courses per year
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder specialization and officer wellness 8-hour course
  • Recertification and officer resilience CIT training

Model Components

Staffing Structure

• Employs a complementary three-team approach through the Community Connection Center (CCC), which includes:
  • Crisis Intervention Team (CIT)
  • Homeless Outreach Service Team (HOST)
  • Community Connection Team (CCT)
• Social worker in police car with officer
• Have 4 officers and 1 sergeant. Respond to calls. There will be requests for them. Have two hostage negotiators
• 8AM-3PM in the field

Staff Training/Qualifications

• Most of the team came from the main BH agency

Dispatch Structure

• Calls go through the dispatch office.
• Community members may call them directly.
• Patrol officers may call them over the radio or the phone.
• Can call the community connections line and they can be dispatched (non-emergency line), these won’t be prioritized, but prefer 911.
• They don’t get dispatched; they volunteer for the calls. Train every new class of dispatchers. Give them an introduction (1 hour) about what they do and where they are

Operating Structure

Operations  

• Community Connection Center
  • In July 2016, SLCPD opened the Community Connection Center (CCC) for people who have behavioral health needs. The CCC houses three teams that coordinate responses to calls for service, follow up, and provide community outreach.
• Community Connections Team
  • A team of caseworkers and social workers act as liaisons between front-line police officers, people that are experiencing homelessness or are in crisis, community service providers and other stakeholders.
  • The team often provides crisis intervention services, short-term therapeutic interventions, case management and coordination, and resources to police, people with mental illnesses, and their families.
  • Specialty in BH, substance use, homelessness. Not DV.
  • Focus on the patrol call side- during a crisis they can provide more resources than an officer can. Involuntary commitments can decrease because a social worker can provide other options.
  • Social workers have been in the district for four years. Co-responder model has been for three years.
  • They respond as the initial unit
  • The same officers that go on the calls do the follow-up
  • Also check on homeless encampments:
    • Do not believe that they should be involved in encampment cleanups. They go ahead of time to let them know it is coming and offer services.
    • Might be there during the cleanup to offer help with housing or other resources
    • Get weekly updates on where camps are and get asked to offer services
    • Work with Volunteers of America to do this
• Crisis Intervention Team and Investigative Unit
• Crisis Intervention Team (CIT)
  • Includes specially trained law enforcement officers who are taught to effectively respond to situations involving a person experiencing a mental health crisis.
  • SLCPD also operates a dedicated unit for these calls that is known as the CIT Investigative Unit. Whenever a case is identified as involving a person with a mental illness, a detective in the CIT Investigative Unit reviews the report and determines if additional follow up is required or would be beneficial for the individual.
• Homeless Outreach Service Team (HOST)
  • Formed in 2012, HOST is a proactive partnership effort in which police engage homeless service providers to help connect people experiencing homelessness with appropriate community-based social services and support
• Community Partnerships:
  • Crisis Response Services
  • Meets once a month with admin and nurses from the hospitals and other organizations.
  • Each group brings individuals they are concerned about to the table and they discuss and formulate a plan on where they go from here.
• Lacking medical component but have a clinic that serves the homeless population.
• Have gotten feedback from the community and political figures on what is wanted and needed

Funding Mechanisms 

• Funded through the city budget
• Occasionally get grants for overhead
• Do not bill
• Do not get reimbursed by Medicaid or anything because they are police

MOU/Contracting

• There is no liability agreement
• They fall under the same umbrella as officers since they are city employees in the police department

Management Structure

• Social workers are city employees
• Staffed in police department

Supplies/Equipment

• Officers wear detective uniforms, they have a softer appearance and recognize them as different than the police.
• Now have external vests
• Civilians wear bulletproof vests and are working on getting a uniform
• Ballistic vests are mandatory
• Use marked patrol vehicles cars. It is better to have these cars because they are easier to clean or in case, they need to take someone in

Data Systems/Collection

• Data Systems
  • Social Workers:
    • Have their own database that someone created for them
    • Don’t have the funds for an expensive one
    • Document data in the homeless management system for homelessness information
  • Officers:
    • Use a spreadsheet with several different categories.
    • Keep track throughout the day and record at the end of the day.
    • Officers fill out reports/forms when they encounter someone with a mental illness, but they cannot get data out of them. Does not always happen because this is 70-80% of calls.
    • Do not get as much data as they should have
• Data Collection
  • • Data tracking for Social Workers
    • One of their weakest areas
    • Hard to express and record what goes into each call
    • Keeping track of involuntary commitments to compare with officers in the field.
    • Officer Data Tracking
      • Co-response on the officers’ side is self-reported
• Highlighted Statistics/Outcomes
  • Usually receive 40 contacts.

Key Takeaways

• Being embedded in the police department helps with trust and relationships
• Using LA as a model was useful, but was able to adapt to the needs of Salt Lake City