Senator Tanya Storer introduced LB386, the Mental Health Pilot Program Act, to authorize a pilot allowing the Nebraska Crime Commission to select a county law‑enforcement agency to add mental‑health bed capacity in an existing secured local facility so individuals held under emergency protective custody (EPC) could receive more timely evaluation and care.

Storer said the pilot targets rural challenges: “many counties … face long travel distances” to regional centers, and officers often spend hours or more transporting people in crisis. The bill would permit a county to use a secured room within a facility that already provides secured access (for example, a justice center) as a non‑incarcerative space for clinical evaluation and telemedicine or in‑person treatment while a regional placement is arranged.

Attorney General Mike Hilgers told the committee the pilot is a “Nebraska based solution” that could produce “wins” for individuals, law enforcement, communities and the criminal justice system by reducing long transports and providing quicker stabilization. Police chiefs, county officials and EMS representatives supported the bill as a practical response to scarce inpatient capacity in rural areas and the operational burden on small agencies.

Opponents focused narrowly on the bill’s remote‑hearing and telemedicine language. Spike Eicholt (Nebraska Criminal Defense Attorneys Association) said the bill was “silent as to when the video conferencing can be used,” and that public defenders and appointed counsel needed safeguards and objection rights to protect clients who may be low‑functioning, paranoid, or unable to interact effectively by video. The Nebraska State Bar Association also asked that the bill include explicit procedural protections for remote hearings and said the rulebook adopted for court video hearings should guide any telehearing expansion.

Other witnesses raised concerns about the possibility facilities might be indistinguishable from jail cells in practice. A licensed counselor said care must not feel like incarceration and urged robust staffing, clinical oversight and non‑punitive settings. Senator Storer and the attorney general said the bill’s language is intended to allow “warm, safe spaces” and telemedicine access; they offered to work with the bar and defense counsel to tighten hearing procedures and guardrails.

Next steps: Committee members and stakeholders signaled a willingness to refine telehearing language, to clarify that the pilot is not intended to incarcerate people or expand law‑enforcement powers, and to resolve funding sources for the pilot.