Identifying Points of Intervention: A Collaboration Between Boston Emergency Services Team and the Boston Police Department

• In Event: Police Responses to Vulnerable Populations

Abstract

Since 2010, the Boston Police Department (BPD) and the Boston Medical Center’s Boston Emergency Services Team (BEST) have collaborated on a co-response program in which clinicians are paired with officers to respond to calls for service involving behavioral health issues. In 2023, co-responder teams responded to 3,685 calls for service. With over a decade of intense collaboration, the BPD-BEST partnership continues to expand and strengthen, fundamentally transforming how the BPD responds to mental health-related calls. In collaboration with UMASS Lowell researchers, BPD and BEST integrate data for Boston community members who are high utilizers of emergency services. Specifically, we explore the compounding effects of gender, race, mental health, substance use, and housing status on service outcomes. More broadly, the study aims to investigate gender-specific differences in the use of police and mental health services. In summary, the study investigates pathways to service usage to identify potential intervention points among Boston community members who regularly rely on emergency services.

Authors

• Melissa Morabito, University of Massachusetts Lowell

• Courtney E. Fisher, University of Massachusetts Lowell

• Jenna Savage, Boston Police Department

• Rachel Oblath, Boston Medical Center