Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Mental Health topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Council hears expansion of police mental-health teams; foundation grants to fund coordinator and co-responder roles
Summary
Council discussion focused on grants to fund a full-time threat assessment coordinator and to extend behavioral health co-responder positions. Police leaders said grants will allow dedicated staff to coordinate threat assessments and expand co-responder coverage; councilors supported moving the positions into the city budget over time.
The Omaha City Council debated and heard details about philanthropic grant funding to expand police behavioral-health staffing during the May 20 meeting.
City staff said the Police Foundation and a behavioral-health foundation provided grants to fund a full-time threat assessment coordinator (item 56) and to extend a mental health crisis co-responder position (item 57). Omaha Police Department (OPD) speakers said the coordinator position would allow a staffer to fully devote time to threat-assessment processes, mitigation strategies and coordination with community partners; staff said the position would reduce backlog on periodic threat assessment meetings and improve follow-up and case coordination.
Lieutenant Alta (OPD) and Lieutenant Allen Straub described the work: co-responders coordinate with officers responding to 911 calls, help de-escalate incidents, connect people to community resources and try to divert people from arrest or hospitalization where appropriate. OPD said the grant funding covers initial payroll; the department outlined a phased plan to bring the positions into the city budget over two to three years. Council members praised the program, called de-escalation and diversion an important tool to reduce jail use for behavioral-health issues and emphasized the need to expand coverage to nights and weekends.
Some public comment urged broader public-health leadership at the city/county level; one opponent said the city health director should take a stronger role in public-health responses. Council members said philanthropic funding is useful to start positions but emphasized the need to sustain them in the municipal budget. Council did not record a separate roll-call vote in the transcript for the funding items during the public hearing segment; staff indicated grant terms and budget transitions would be finalized through the city budgeting and agreement process.
Council members asked for additional data on the number and trends of threats and for co-responder participation in cross-agency meetings. OPD said they would pursue follow-up briefings and noted school-based and adult threat-assessment teams already exist and that reporting channels have increased since 2019.
