Cumberland County program seeks to reduce use-of-force incidents

BRIDGETON – A federal grant will help fund a program intended to reduce the use of force when police encounter people with mental illness or substance abuse issues.

The program will embed a social worker with Millville’s police department to help provide "appropriate clinical care" to troubled individuals and to build trust between the police and the community," said Cumberland County Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae.

The prosecutor said she's seeking additional funds to expand the program to other local police departments in the county.

The program, one of two announced by Webb-McRae, also will deliver county-wide training for police on crisis intervention, mental health first aid, and de-escalation techniques, the prosecutor said.

And it’s expected to develop a countywide on-call crisis-response team to assist police “at appropriate incidents.”

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“Many of our encounters that end in deadly force are actually calls for mental health crises,” Webb-McRae said at a virtual news conference Tuesday.

She cited no examples, but a Millville officer last month fatally shot a city resident, 33-year-old Daniel Ackley, who was experiencing what a 911 dispatcher described as a “psychological episode.”

“Police do receive training in de-escalation techniques, but we need more experts helping people in crisis,” Millville Police Department Chief Jody Farabella said at Tuesday’s session.

A statewide review of police use-of-force reports indicates that, in two out of three cases, “the civilian against whom the force was used was either experiencing a mental health crisis or under the influence of drugs or alcohol,” said Acting Attorney General Andrew Bruck.

“If we can change the way we engage with those who are in crisis, we can dramatically reduce the number of use of force incidents in the state,” he said.

Bruck said the county’s plan “dovetails so nicely” with a recently introduced pilot program, Arrive Together, that includes a mental health screener on some responses in Cumberland County towns patrolled by New Jersey State Police.

The prosecutor’s office chose Millville’s police department based on its ongoing outreach efforts to homeless people and those with mental issues, said Webb-McRae.

She noted the Millville department also “is working on” obtaining Tasers as a non-lethal option to subdue people during police encounters.

The program will be funded by a three-year federal grant of almost $550,000, along with $162,000 being provided by the county and Inspira Health Network.

Inspira also will provide mental health experts to be embedded with Millville’s police department.

“We don’t intend to put any social worker in harm’s way,” Webb-McRae noted.

A second federal grant, also for three years, will provide almost $900,000 for a county-run program intended to divert “those struggling with addiction” away from the criminal justice system and into recovery, Webb-McRae said.

She said the program would be offered at the onset of the criminal justice process to people accused of "drug-seeking" non-violent offenses, such as thefts, shoplifting and car burglaries.

Those individuals "will be offered an opportunity to get on the road to recovery; and if they do well at that, we will drop their charges,” the prosecutor said.

The program would allow assistant prosecutors to identify suitable candidates for “non-arrest pathways to treatment and recovery," Webb-McRae added.

In contrast, an existing statewide diversion program — known until recently as Drug Court — requires a judge's approval and is offered only after a person has been charged and entered into the criminal justice system.

Jim Walsh covers public safety, economic development and other beats for the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal.

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This article originally appeared on Vineland Daily Journal: Program will embed mental health providers with Millville police force