Longview council approves grant-funded mental-health hires and COPS grant to expand multidisciplinary response
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Summary
The council approved a grant-funded memorandum of understanding to place two qualified mental-health professionals with the city's multidisciplinary response team and accepted a $250,000 COPS grant to expand the city's POST unit from two to four officers, aiming to improve crisis response and reduce emergency-room and jail diversions.
The Longview City Council on Oct. 23 approved a memorandum of understanding with Community Health Corps to place two grant-funded, qualified mental-health professionals with the city's Partners in Alternative Community Care (PACK) team and accepted a separate $250,000 U.S. Department of Justice COPS Hiring Program grant to expand the city's POST community-response unit.
Laura Hill, a city staff member who presented the MOU, said the Community Health Corps has been "loaning us a person at their expense to work out all the kinks," and the MOU will "solidify that arrangement and allow it to expand." The MOU was presented as fully grant funded; the council approved it by voice vote.
Chief Boone, who presented the COPS grant and budget amendment, described POST's work since its January 2018 start. He said POST currently has two officers who respond to people experiencing homelessness and mental-health episodes and who operate as part of multidisciplinary outreach that includes EMS and mental-health workers. "When the call comes out and if there's somebody in a crisis, they can go," Boone said, and the unit also identifies "frequent flyers" for earlier intervention to avoid emergency-room visits and arrests.
The COPS award covers up to $125,000 per officer in the first year and is reimbursed on a multi-year schedule (roughly $125,000, then $75,000, then $50,000 in subsequent years). Boone said the city applied for two positions and plans to grow POST from two officers to four. He told the council the grant is "seed money" intended to allow the city to develop a community-policing model that the city will gradually absorb over time.
Boone provided program statistics: POST made several hundred contacts last year, supported nearly 100 housing/rehab placements last year and 60 year-to-date, and reported homeward-bound placements (41 last year, 13 year-to-date) and jail diversions (28 last year, 20 year-to-date). He said the jail-diversion work is "very time consuming" because it requires voluntary participation, coordination with municipal and county courts, possible DA involvement, and follow-up.
Councilmembers asked operational questions. One councilmember asked whether a person who seeks help from a POST officer receives safe-harbor protection from arrest; Boone said it depends on the circumstances but that traditional law-enforcement tools remain a last resort. Another asked about fees tied to getting state IDs; Boone said "there are some fees" but that the city uses available means to help cover them in some cases.
The council also approved a budget amendment to allocate the awarded $250,000 COPS grant to the city budget; the motion passed by voice vote. City staff noted the grant reimbursement schedule and estimated the city's cumulative local-match obligation across the grant term; Boone said the requested budget amendment reflects updated salary figures after Oct. 1 pay adjustments.
The city framed the actions as steps toward a larger multidisciplinary effort: Hill and Boone described the integrated response with Community Health Corps staff, the POST officers, and other partners (including GLOW) working together to address behavioral-health crises, reduce strain on emergency services, and direct people to services.
Council approval: The MOU with Community Health Corps and the COPS grant budget amendment were each approved by motion and voice vote.
