SENATE, No. 2801

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

219th LEGISLATURE

 

INTRODUCED AUGUST 10, 2020

 


 

Sponsored by:

Senator  NELLIE POU

District 35 (Bergen and Passaic)

Senator  LINDA R. GREENSTEIN

District 14 (Mercer and Middlesex)

 

Co-Sponsored by:

Senator O'Scanlon

 

 

 

 

SYNOPSIS

     Requires Police Training Commission to contract with crisis intervention training center to provide mental health training to police officers and establish curriculum specific to persons experiencing economic crisis or substance use disorder.

 

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

     As introduced.

  


An Act concerning police training and supplementing chapter 17B of Title 52 of the Revised Statutes.

 

     Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

     1.    a.  The Police Training Commission in the Division of Criminal Justice in the Department of Law and Public Safety shall:

     (1)   annually contract with a crisis intervention training center to assist and support counties in developing and implementing the Crisis Intervention Team model.  The Police Training Commission shall assume and maintain any existing contract between a crisis intervention training center and the Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services in the Department of Human Services that is in operation upon the effective date of this act.  Upon the expiration of that contract, any new contract entered into under this paragraph between the Police Training Commission and a crisis intervention training center shall include, at a minimum, the same provisions that were contained in the expired contract executed by the Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services;

     (2)   require every municipal police officer appointed to a police department and force established pursuant to N.J.S.40A:14-118 and every county police officer appointed to a police department and force pursuant to N.J.S.40A:14-106, within five years of the effective date of this act or by a date determined by the Attorney General, to complete the Crisis Intervention Team model as part of the officer’s in-service training;

     (3)   develop and implement, in collaboration with the crisis and intervention training center contracted with pursuant to this section, a curriculum that applies the Crisis Intervention Team model to persons experiencing an economic crisis or struggling with a substance abuse disorder who come into contact with law enforcement first responders.

     b.    The Police Training Commission shall adopt rules and regulations, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), to effectuate the purposes of this act.

     c.     As used in this section:

     “Crisis Intervention Team model” means the best practice jail diversion model originally developed by the Memphis Tennessee Police Department and implemented in New Jersey as a county based collaboration of professionals committed to improving the law enforcement and mental health systems’ response to persons experiencing a psychiatric crisis who come into contact with law enforcement first responders. 

     “Crisis intervention training center” means a program or entity that has operated as a crisis intervention support center in the State for a period of at least five years and is contracted, pursuant to subsection a. of the section, to assist New Jersey counties in developing and implementing the Crisis Intervention Team model.

    

     2.    This act shall take effect on the first day of the thirteenth month next following the date of enactment.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

This bill requires the Police Training Commission (PTC) in the Division of Criminal Justice in the Department of Law and Public Safety to contract with a crisis intervention training center to assist and support counties in developing and implementing the Crisis Intervention Team model. The “Crisis Intervention Team model” is the best practice jail diversion model originally developed by the Memphis Tennessee Police Department and implemented in New Jersey as a county based collaboration of professionals committed to improving the law enforcement and mental health systems’ response to persons experiencing a psychiatric crisis who come into contact with law enforcement first responders. A “crisis intervention training center” is defined as a program or entity that has operated as a crisis intervention support center in the State for a period of at least five years and is contracted under the bill to assist counties in developing and implementing the Crisis Intervention Team model.

The bill directs the PTC to assume and maintain any existing contract between a crisis intervention training center and the Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) in the Department of Human Services that is in operation on the bill’s effective date. Upon the expiration of that contract, any new contract entered into under the bill between a crisis intervention training center and the PTC will need to include, at a minimum, the same provisions that were contained in the expired contract executed by the DMHAS.

The bill also directs the PTC to: 1) require every municipal and county police officer appointed to a police department and force in this State, within five years of the bill’s effective date or by a date determined by the Attorney General, to complete the Crisis Intervention Team model as part of the officer’s in-service training; and 2) develop and implement, in collaboration with the contracted crisis intervention training center, a curriculum that applies the Crisis Intervention Team model to persons experiencing an economic crisis or struggling with a substance abuse disorder who come into contact with law enforcement first responders.