Creating Off-Ramps: Lessons Learned from Police-Led Diversion Programs

• In Event: Police Responses to the Mentally Ill and Other Special Populations

Abstract

In an effort to alleviate heavy caseloads and further the use of community orientated policing strategies, law enforcement agencies have developed prebooking (“police-led”) diversion programs. Although formal diversion programs may exist for a variety of different offender populations (e.g. mentally ill offenders, juveniles, first-time offenders), little is known about the extent to which such programs have been formally established by law enforcement agencies across the nation. The second phase of a national study, the purpose of this project was to select eight promising police-led diversion programs for in-depth case studies based upon the findings of an earlier survey of law enforcement agencies. Researchers conducted in-person site-visits in which they interviewed stakeholders, law enforcement personnel, and program providers in order to gain greater insight into their diversion programs. A diverse array of agencies were selected across the county in order to highlight the three most common diversion programs as observed from the results of the earlier survey: juvenile diversion, diversion of the mentally ill (e.g. Crisis Intervention Teams), and drug market interventions. This presentation will focus on presenting qualitative data in order to illustrate the lessons learned from agencies throughout the evolution of programming.

Authors

• Jennifer A. Tallon, Center for Court Innovation

• Melissa Labriola, Center for Court Innovation

• Joseph Spadafore, Center for Court Innovation