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Law enforcement leaders ask for $3 million state support to sustain deflection/quick-response teams
Summary
Representatives of Ohio's deflection/quick-response teams and their technology and data partners told the committee that state investment (they asked for parity with the prior $3 million appropriation) is needed to sustain teams that link people with substance use disorder to treatment and reduce overdose deaths and related criminal activity.
Several law enforcement leaders, program directors and a vendor testified in proponent testimony about the Quick Response Team (QRT) and deflection model and asked the committee to include sustained funding in the state budget.
Dan Malloy, president of the Ohio Deflection Association and a retired police chief, and Tom Fallon, executive director of the Ohio Deflection Association and former heroin task force commander in Hamilton County, described the programs' expansion from a handful of sites to about 80 teams across Ohio. Fallon said local QRTs and deflection efforts have shown outcomes that include fewer overdose deaths and reduced criminal justice involvement; he cited Montgomery County and Hamilton County studies and said the teams documented over 40,000 interactions last year.
Malloy and Fallon urged the committee to restore a recurring $3 million statewide appropriation for the network's operations and data platform so teams are not dependent on three-year federal grants. Cordata Healthcare CEO Gary Windsor Reed, the vendor who provides the core shared data platform, said federal grants taught teams how to implement programs but left them uncertain about sustainability: "Federal grants are meant to support implementing programs and ideas ... but they were never meant to be the long term funding structure," he testified.
Speakers said the teams are multidisciplinary, involving law enforcement, fire, EMS, behavioral health and peers, and that recurring state support would maintain staff, data systems, outcome measurement and the referrals that link people to treatment, housing, and peer supports. No committee action or vote was taken at the hearing; witnesses provided budget testimony.
