Partners in Care Program (Police Department)

The Partners in Care program is a collaboration between the Metro Nashville Police Department, Mental Health Cooperative, and other metro government agencies created to better serve individuals in the community who are experiencing a behavioral health crisis. The Partners in Care program strives to improve access to care for individuals experiencing a behavioral health crisis, divert consumers from the criminal justice system and into the health care system, all while improving the communication and coordination across all systems of care, and increasing the safety of all involved in these crisis interactions.

Officers participating in the Partners in Care program have completed 40 hours of Crisis Intervention Team training to prepare them to work alongside master’s level clinicians from Mental Health Cooperative. Each clinician who is paired with an officer receives 16 hours of job specific training to prepare them for their role in this co-response program.

The program was launched in June of 2021, and recently wrapped up the planned one-year pilot phase. The data collected during that first year in our pilot precincts (North and Hermitage) was very encouraging and demonstrated the program is meeting the stated goals.

During the pilot phase, officers and clinicians responded to 1,344 calls for service that met the criteria for crisis response. Of those calls, Partners in Care units maintained a low arrest rate of just around 4%, and since the conclusion of the pilot phase, that number has steadily remained under that 4% mark. According to the data, those involved in the program are placing a premium on connecting consumers to the appropriate care and diverting them out of the criminal justice system and into the mental health care system.

With the pilot phase concluded, the Partners in Care Program will continue to utilize data driven strategies to provide quality services to the community. Epidemiologists employed by the Department of Public Health constantly monitor the data collected to ensure the data’s integrity. The Office of Alternative Policing Strategies is utilizing this data to plan the program’s expansion to each of the MNPD’s eight precincts. In May Partners in Care expanded to the Central Precinct, and the South Precinct was added on November 1, 2022. It is the goal of the Office of Alternative Policing Strategies to expand to a new Metro Police Precinct every six months until the Partners in Care program is active in all eight precincts. The Midtown Hills precinct is on track to be added on May 1.

The links below contain snapshots of the data collected during the of the Partners in Care program.