February 9, 2022

The Fredericksburg, Virginia, police are partnering to create the area’s first team to respond to mental health calls.

The Crisis Intervention Response Team will pair one Fredericksburg police officer and one clinician from Rappahannock Area Community Services specialized in crisis intervention, the police said in a statement. They’ll be the primary unit for calls regarding people in a mental health crisis, a suicide-threat situation, self-harm and emergency custody orders. They can also be called, or deploy themselves, to help a primary officer on calls that could produce such situations.

Fredericksburg creates crisis intervention team to aid police on mental health calls