Public Health and Safety Portfolio

Washtenaw County is actively engaging in efforts to reimagine the delivery of emergency services to residents experiencing mental health crises by transforming how law enforcement and mental health services work together to address these challenges. WCSO and Washtenaw County Community Mental Health (CMH) partnered to provide County residents with a full continuum of services. This continuum includes behavioral and public health programs provided through collaboration between social workers and sheriff deputies. In 2021 WCSO and CMH announced they were partnering on an exciting new alternative co-response unit (CRU) dedicated to responding to emergency mental health calls. WCSO and CMH began the CRU pilot in June 2022, covering Ypsilanti township, where WCSO is responsible for providing police services. During the pilot, CRU consisted of unit, including a sheriff’s deputy and a licensed social worker.  

During the pilot, the University of Chicago Health Lab conducted a detailed implementation evaluation of CRU. This evaluation began in the nascent stages of the CRU initiative and included both quantitative and qualitative components. Qualitative approaches included interviews with various stakeholders at CMH and WCSO, including agency leadership and frontline staff members of the CRU unit. It also included ethnographic observations of CRU and the County’s emergency communications center (ECC). Health Lab also analyzed available County-wide administrative data, including Washtenaw County’s ECC data, WCSO patrol data, and data from CMH. The implementation evaluation was designed to help WCSO and CMH identify and resolve potential operational challenges before implementation at scale and to generate timely knowledge that to inform diversified response initiatives in cities, counties, and states across the nation.