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Indy councilor wants to consider expanding police-mental health partnership program

One Indianapolis city councilor is asking IMPD to consider expanding their mental health partnership program.

INDIANAPOLIS — As the Indianapolis City County Council discusses next year's proposed budget, some of the talk is turning to IMPD and how much should be going toward mental health services.

Councilor Jared Evans wants to know why the Mobile Crisis Assistance Team, called MCAT for short, hasn't expanded since its launch in 2017.

It's made up of patrol officers and mental health experts to help people who may not need to be arrested but need treatment for mental illness or drug addiction.

RELATED: IMPD 2021 budget asks for $7 million increase as city grapples with 40% increase in homicides

"I think the MCAT team is something that is strongly on our minds. How do we expand that?" said Evans, who sits on the council's public safety committee. "It's proven successful and I think the citizens want to see more interaction like that."

During the MCAT pilot program in 2017, MCAT only took two percent of people they encountered to jail. In two-thirds of their runs, they were able to relieve patrol officers, allowing them to get back to regular duty.

85 percent of police interviewed in surveys said the team was very useful.

But researchers found a problem, too.

"One of the biggest things that the city in general has to deal with is the lack of treatment resources for people," Katie Bailey told 13News in 2018. Bailey is an analyst with the IU Public Policy Institute and co-author of the study on MCAT.

Across the country this summer have been calls to allocate more police resources toward mental health treatment and counseling. Evans said the question is, what would that fully look like here?

"I don’t think this is rocket science," he said. "I think we need to get all of our community partners together and lay out a road map for the future of this city."

According to IMPD, about a million dollars is proposed for MCAT in 2021. Spokesperson Aliya Wishner told 13News that is consistent with the budgets for 2020 and 2019.

"This funding covers the personnel costs for the officers assigned to both the Mobile Crisis Assistance Teams (MCAT) and the Behavioral Health Unit (BHU)," said Wishner.

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