The Lack of Sustainability in Police Reform Mental Health Support and Their Inconclusive Effectiveness

Those calling for police reformation have advocated for reducing police-led response to mental health crises and instead, transferring these calls to adequately trained mental health professionals. This support program is commonly referred to as the mental health, “co-responder” model. The empirical evidence currently supporting co-responder models suggests inconsistencies in program development, unclear objectives, and a lack of standards for rigorous program evaluation. Thus, the purpose of this review was to identify co-responder models throughout the United States and assess the anecdotal in-/effectiveness of these programs as well as potential factors contributing to the hindrance of or boost in sustainability of this reformative support model. The Transform911 initiative facilitated by the University of Chicago Health Lab from 2020 to 2022 was utilized as the foundation of this review. Findings suggest a consistent theme across program objectives and render important recommendations for current and future co-responder teams.