HB 6579, An Act Concerning the Expansion of the Crisis Initiative Pilot Program Throughout the State and HB 6582, An Act Concerning a Pilot Program for Addiction Services Experts at Police Departments

Contact between community members and police can have tragic consequences for people experiencing mental health crises and substance use disorder. People who are in mental health crises need treatment. As such, public health and social work actors should be the ones to take the lead when addressing mental health crises and addiction, not as an auxiliary afterthought to police. Rather than continue to entrench the role of police in mental health, this Committee should seek to divest police from
this function entirely. We oppose House Bill 6579 and House Bill 6582 because of their failure to reduce the role of policing in our communities, particularly with regard to some of our most vulnerable residents when they are in need of medical care for a mental health crisis.