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 amended by the Senate on December 20, 2021.
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. 1The Attorney General, in consultation with the Commissioner of Human Services, shall develop a pilot program to promote and encourage law enforcement officers Statewide to complete training that applies the Crisis Intervention Team model, which program may include support for and coordination between the Police Training Commission in the Division of Criminal Justice in the Department of Law and Public Safety and the Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services in the Department of Human Services to increase the frequency of, number of locations, and geographic accessibility to training courses offered that apply the Crisis Intervention Team model.
b.1 The Police Training Commission 1[in the Division of Criminal Justice in the Department of Law and Public Safety]1 shall 1[:
(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)]1 develop and implement 1or incorporate into an existing training course1, in 1[collaboration] consultation1 with 1[the] a1 crisis 1[and]1 intervention training center 1[contracted with pursuant to this section]1, 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.
1[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.]1
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 1[is contracted, pursuant to subsection a. of the section, to assist] that has experience in assisting political subdivisions in1 New Jersey 1[counties]1 in developing and implementing the Crisis Intervention Team model.
2. This act shall take effect 1[on the first day of the thirteenth month next following the date of enactment] immediately1.