Editor’s note: As agencies nationwide work to improve their response to crisis calls, this three-part series looks at the co-responder models showing the clearest results. Over the next three months, you’ll get practical guidance to strengthen your team, support better outcomes and build a program that lasts.
Too many chiefs still think co-responder programs mean “having a clinician ride along.” It looks good in a grant proposal — and collapses in practice.
Contracted clinicians are outsiders. They do not know your officers, your community or your chain of command. They leave when the funding dries up.
A contract can keep the lights on for a while and fill a short-term gap. But it is not built to last.
A true co-responder program works when the clinician is part of the department — hired by the city, on the same radio, dispatched through the same system, accountable to the same command. When they sit inside your supervisory structure, leaders can actually manage the work instead of negotiating with an outside agency.
That is the difference between outsourcing a service and owning a solution.
| RELATED: What cops want in 2025 — Safer, smarter responses to mental health calls
Why embedding works
Here is what embedding delivers. Agencies see fewer psychiatric hospitalizations — in Missouri, a single psychiatric ER admission averages about $16,000. They see fewer mental-health-related jail bookings — one booking tied to a mental health crisis averages about $4,000. And they see fewer repeat calls in CAD because problems are resolved instead of recycled.
Those figures are per incident. The savings multiply when you stop the repeats. Even if your local numbers differ, the math is the same: ER beds and jail beds are the most expensive and least effective places to manage a mental health crisis. Embedded teams prevent both.
Embedded programs also lower liability. One bad crisis response can trigger lawsuits and headlines. Embedding lowers that risk because you are sending the right people with the right training at the right time.
This is not a side issue. Crisis, substance use and family breakdown drive a large share of 911 calls.
When you outsource the response, you outsource your credibility. When you embed the response, you turn police into problem-solvers instead of punishers. That is how trust begins.
What officers experience
Officers feel the difference. When they know and trust the co-responder, they call earlier, hand off safely and stop burning hours in ER hallways.
Morale improves because they see problems actually getting fixed. That kind of trust only happens when the responder is part of the department.
Embedding also helps departments hold on to officers. When calls end with solutions instead of cycles, burnout drops. In a profession where recruitment and retention are already at risk, that matters.
The leadership test
Leadership failures are easy to spot. Programs launched on short-term grant dollars collapse the moment the money ends. Treat co-responders as outsiders and you get turnover, resentment and missed calls. Families notice. The department is left holding the bag.
This is no longer a regional experiment. Hundreds of departments across the country now field co-responder or mobile crisis teams in big cities, suburbs and rural counties. The pattern is consistent: embed the work and the results follow.
The fix is straightforward. Stop treating co-response as a pilot. Stop contracting it like a temp position.
Hire it. Fund it. Own it. Build it into your department’s long-term budget the same way you plan for cars, radios, training and wellness. That is how you scale a program that lasts and supports recruitment and retention.
If you want a program that works, embed it. Anything else is a contract, not a solution — and communities are running out of patience for solutions that do not last.
