Behavioral Health and Law Enforcement: Finding Common Ground in the Tucson Police Department’s Deflection Program

Some jurisdictions are adopting pre-arrest diversion models as an innovative approach that coordinates efforts of multiple stakeholders, including law enforcement, healthcare providers, and researchers. This session will share lessons learned by the Tucson Police Department’s (TPD) pre-arrest Deflection Program, which gives officers the discretion to connect individuals to treatment in lieu of arresting them. In addition, the program involves law enforcement/behavioral health peer support co-responder teams engaging in daily targeted outreach in the community, encouraging people to seek or re-engage in substance misuse treatment. Thus, this program works to increase access to treatment while minimizing justice involvement.

As implementation of the Deflection Program progressed, it became evident that program partner differences in operations, mission, and core beliefs presented barriers to program implementation. Presenters will address the actions taken in building a collaboration between law enforcement and treatment to create a common mission, common language, and a single vision to maximize the potential of the partnership.

TPD and program partners conducted implementation and outcome evaluations utilizing deflection and arrest data from TPD, treatment engagement data from the main partnering healthcare provider, and longitudinal self-report data collected from Deflection Program participants. Presenters will report evaluation findings indicating the feasibility and acceptability of TPD’s Deflection Program, as well as its impact on substance misuse and criminal activity.

This session is applicable to both treatment staff and law enforcement wanting to create community collaborations.