Decatur County to expand Crisis Intervention Team after $5 million grant

Decatur County officials described plans on the county council agenda to expand a Crisis Intervention Team after receiving a $5,000,000 foundation grant.

The county’s jail commander, Mike Ailes, told the council the grant will fund CIT training, vehicles, equipment, transportation and community mental-health personnel. Ailes said the CIT model has been used inside the county detention facility for about 18 months and credited the approach with reducing use-of-force reports in the jail from 128 in 2022 to 23 last year. He said the goal is to bring that model into the community to reduce crises that lead to detention and to improve outcomes by connecting people to medication, inpatient care and housing resources.

Ailes said the team will be multiagency: law enforcement, fire and EMS will receive training and the program will “take all of the resources involving mental health within the county” and combine them under a single framework. He said partners include the county health department and regional behavioral-health facilities. Ailes said the county already has access to beds in Indianapolis and Columbus and will use regional partnerships, including Johnson County’s CIT program, as models.

Program components Ailes described include three broad grant areas: personnel, vehicles, equipment and training; transportation and community-based mental-health staff; and backfill positions plus a small pool of funds community groups can apply to for needs tied to the team. He said the county has already procured three turnkey vehicles at roughly $57,000 each and estimated computer equipment at $7,000–$10,000. Ailes said he expects more-detailed, itemized figures within three to four months as budgeting continues.

On staffing and sustainability, Ailes said the initial field team will include two field officers (one city, one county) and a coordinator. He said the county previously appropriated $25,000 to begin the program before the larger grant arrived and that county staff plan to present a sustainability proposal to the city council proposing a 50/50 funding split in future years. Ailes said hiring is already underway: he reported the county had opened job postings for two field officers and expected to begin filling the positions soon.

County officials stressed sustainability concerns. Ailes said the grant period is finite and long-term funding will require local planning; he said the application emphasized sustainability and multiagency collaboration when the foundation evaluated proposals.

The council did not take a formal vote on program adoption at this meeting; members asked clarifying questions and heard the presentation. The council did not set an implementation deadline during the discussion.

The presentation also named outside officials and advisers consulted in planning (Chad Smith, attorney Chris Weaver) and compared regional approaches, noting Marion County’s larger system differs from Johnson County’s CIT model, which Ailes described as the “gold standard.”

Funding, next steps and accountability will be subject to future budget reviews and intergovernmental agreements as staff finalize line-item costs and sustainability plans.