The Tallahassee City Commission heard an update on the Tallahassee Emergency Assessment Mobile (TEAM) unit during the January 12 city retreat.
The TEAM pilot program was launched in March 2021 to divert non-violent mental health crises away from law enforcement to a designated response team. The team is comprised of a licensed mental health professional, a Tallahassee Fire Department Paramedic/EMT, and a certified Crisis Intervention Trained TPD officer.
Since its inception, the TEAM unit has responded to 772 individuals experiencing a mental health crisis. Currently, the TEAM unit operates Monday–Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. However, soon they will be running a second unit on the weekends. This change comes after the city was awarded a $250,000 Department of Justice (DOJ) Community Policing Development grant to expand the crisis intervention team over the next two years.
During the meeting, an officer who is active in the unit described how the program has been effective, including offering personal and mass outreach and connecting people with social services.
He said the TEAM unit has the time to dive into the issues and assist with a small problem before it gets out of control. The officer also indicated that his work with the TEAM unit has been the “most impactful” of his career.
“Exceptionally proud of the work our mental health response unit is doing! Starting this program remains one of the achievements I’m most proud of during my tenure, and I am ready to do what it takes to move it from a pilot program to a permanent one,” said Mayor John Dailey.
Tallahassee TEAM Program Reaches 772 Individuals added by Lynsey Kirk on
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Thank God, I moved outa Leon. Is there no limit to the useless woke crap they waste taxes on?
@Thomas C Hooker ….. MY Property Taxes recently went up by $300. I can only assume it is because of the Children’s Services Council.
What are we, 19 days into the new year and 9 ? shootings and 3 murders? Way to allocate funding!!!!
Vote these people out. Remember they took time out of their day (on your dollars) to enthusiastically endorse Joe Biden for President.
They probably whole heartedly endorse voting without ID, the failed Afghanistan exit, a jump in inflation from 1.6% to over 7% in 1 year, high gas prices, gender fluid sports participation, masks, endless vaccines, lockdowns, turning a blind eye to China, letting Russia dominate Europe, and Nukes for Iran among other things. When will they sue the governor for something? Anything to make a statement?
These are Liberals, they support the current leftist disaster that is the federal government.
PS – I am sure we are getting a property tax increase.
Build more prisons and fill them up.
Why are we having the police respond to non-violent mental health crisis? Especially during such limited hours? Couldn’t this be handled better and more economically by mental health professionals at hospitals and clinics? I interned during my education at the Crisis intervention Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital – from my experience a 24/7 crisis intervention is much more effective. This was to appease the ‘defund the police’ believers in our county/city – which has proven to be a dangerous experiment throughout our country. We need to vastly improve mental health care in our country – and access to care is just one piece, but I don’t see how this is helping the police department and in no way is a substitute for law enforcement! The people on the team are well trained professionals – let’s use up the grant and find a better fit for their skills. Thank you for the update – we needed a progress report to see what is happening with our tax dollars.
Need more than superficial talking points
Why are these fools wearing masks outside? Cloth masks don’t work anyway.
Two Things: (ONE): The city was awarded a $250,000 Department of Justice (DOJ) Community Policing Development grant to expand the crisis intervention team over the next two years. After that, THEN what? Another Grant? (TWO): The TEAM unit operates Monday–Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m? I didn’t know that Mental Crisis only happens Monday thru Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. That sure does help.
… and yet, incidents of violent crime continue to increase. Oh, you can change the definition of violent crime… but it doesn’t change the reality, certainly not for the victims anyway.
We heard Mayor John Dailey’s side of the story, let’s hear that the other side of the story… aren’t their services already in place to handle these issues?
I agree that is is a press release sent in by Mayor Dailey or his re-election campaign manager.
Let’s get a fair and balanced critique from an unbiased assessment panel.
Another paid-off press release. What a joke Steve, reconsider the compromises you’ve made
It looks like our elected nannies have stumbled into doing something pretty good for the communitty so far.
Watch for the graft and corruption to kick in on the expansion though.
While I congratulate our elected nannies at this time they still have not earned the communitty’s blanket trust…keep an eye on the next phase…historically our nannies will slip in the graft, corruption, and resulting kick-backs in the form of political contributions or contracts awarded when they feel the public has taken its eye off the ball.
“said Mayor John Dailey.”
I always read the last paragraph first, to see if it’s something I care to waste a few minutes reading. Saved about two on this one.