Recent Grants

The Department of Justice is committed to advancing work that promotes civil rights, increases access to justice, supports crime victims, protects the public from crime and evolving threats, and builds trust between law enforcement and the community.

The Connect and Protect: Law Enforcement Behavioral Health Response Program is part of the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP). It is designated to support law enforcement–behavioral health cross-system collaboration and to improve public safety responses and outcomes for individuals with mental illness (MI) or co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse (CMISA) who come into contact with the criminal justice system. BJA is seeking applicants to design or enhance a law enforcement–behavioral health response to people with MI and CMISA who come into contact with law enforcement due to their illness.

The objectives of the program are to:

• Design and implement a crisis response program based on current best practice to assist law enforcement officers to improve encounters with individuals who have MHDs or co-occurring MHSUDs. These could include any of the following:
  • Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT)
  • Co-Responder Teams
  • Law Enforcement-based Case Management Services
  • Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD)
  • Mobile Crisis Teams
  • Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Teams
  • EMS and Ambulance-based Responses 
• Plan and deliver a crisis response program, through coordination between law enforcement and a mental health agency, that includes services to improve or enhance the response.
• Pay salaries, as well as expenses such as training (overtime) and coordination activities, to design and implement a police-mental health collaboration program (PMHC).
• Engage residents through outreach and education to improve public health and public safety.
• Build positive community relations and trust through public communication strategies.
• Enhance officer knowledge and skills in responding to community members with MHDs or co-occurring MHSUDs.
• Increase public safety and public health agencies' capacity to develop and sustain the program by collecting data to inform practices, create stakeholder groups, develop policy, and encourage ongoing professional development.
• Seek guidance through BJA's 14 law enforcement-mental health learning sites, then incorporate and build upon successful strategies for PMHCs.