Newark Cops Team Up With Mental Health Workers Under New Program

NEWARK, NJ — The concept of pairing mental health experts with police officers isn’t new in Newark, a city that has been graduating municipally employed social workers alongside its local cops for years – with resounding success, according to officials. Now that concept is being taken a step further via a rapidly growing state program, the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General announced Tuesday.

New Jersey’s largest city is now the latest municipality in the Garden State to take part in the ARRIVE Together initiative, which provides medical resources to people experiencing mental and behavior health emergencies.

The goal? To take a “clinical” approach during emergencies involving police – not a punitive one.

Here’s how it works, the attorney general’s office said:

“Launched on June 21, the Newark program is a three-day-per-week pilot in which mental health screeners from Newark Beth Israel Medical Center and Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care are paired with members of law enforcement to respond to mental and behavioral health crisis calls and where mental health screeners partner with members of the Newark Police Department and the New Jersey Transit Police and engage in outreach to people experiencing homelessness, mental and behavioral health issues, and substance abuse issues at Newark Penn Station.”

In the month since the program has been active, ARRIVE teams have engaged in or responded to more than 80 “proactive outreaches and calls for service” in Newark, the attorney general’s office said.

Mental and behavioral health screeners from Newark Beth Israel Medical Center have been pitching into the local effort, becoming one of three RWJBarnabas Health facilities to take part so far.

Frank Ghinassi, senior vice president of behavioral health and addiction services at RWJBarnabas Health, said that in Newark, teams of health workers are pairing with specially-trained plainclothes police officers, who arrive at the scene without using lights and sirens.

According to Fritz Fragé, director of the Newark Department of Public Safety, the local rollout has been so successful that there are plans to expand to the Downtown District next month.

“We are also increasing the number of Newark police officers who are trained in crisis intervention for responding to calls for service alongside ARRIVE Together mental health service providers,” Fragé said.

The ARRIVE program was first launched in 2021 in Cumberland County. It paired a New Jersey State Trooper with a mental health screener in an unmarked vehicle to respond to emergency calls involving “mental or behavioral health crises.” Read More: NJ Pairing Up Counselors, Cops For Some 911 Calls

Since then, the program has proved its own worth, according to the attorney general’s office. As noted in a recent report by The Brookings Institution, ARRIVE has resulted in a lower level of arrest and use of force, higher utilization of mental health services, and fewer racial disparities in outcomes.

The program looks different in each community it’s launched in. Sometimes, law enforcement officers are paired with mental health clinicians, responding as a team to service calls. Other times, mental health providers provide “follow-up care” for people that have had encounters with the police – but this time without officers at the scene.

It’s already been rolled out in two of Newark’s neighboring cities: Orange and East Orange, according to Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore Stephens, who said the program “strengthens the bonds between police officers and communities, while decreasing the chance that force will be used against people who are mentally ill.”

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Mayor Ras Baraka said the local version of the program – which involved “crisis intervention-trained Newark police officers – is a big win for the city.

“Building on what we’ve already established in Newark, this program ensures that each crisis incident is resolved as safely as possible,” Baraka said. “ARRIVE Together seamlessly supports the successful work of our Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery in partnering behavioral specialists with members of the Newark Police Division to appropriately address crisis-related calls for service.”

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“We know that ARRIVE works,” Attorney General Matthew Platkin said.

“Making mental health resources readily available to those in crisis has the power to deescalate tense situations, reduce the need for arrests, and make for positive outcomes,” Platkin said, adding that his office hopes to expand the program statewide.

“Today’s multifaceted partnership between my office, the City of Newark, New Jersey Transit and our health care providers is a testament to what we can achieve when we work together with common purpose,” Platkin said.

The launch of the ARRIVE program in Newark also got a thumbs-up from Gov. Phil Murphy.

“When law enforcement officers, mental health professionals and community members work together, we ensure that mental health emergencies are de-escalated safely, fairly, and efficiently,” Murphy said. “Expanding the ARRIVE Together program to Newark will equip the Brick City with another tool that builds on its efforts to foster stronger relationships between its officers and the communities they serve.”

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