The city’s Person in Crisis (PIC) Team, a unit meant to supplement Rochester police interactions with people exhibiting signs of mental distress, is expected to be evaluated for its effectiveness.
Under a bill introduced to City Council by Mayor Malik Evans, the city would receive a $175,205 grant from the federal Department of Justice that would be used in part to analyze the team.
Specifically, the bill would kickstart the process of finding a firm to study the organization and make recommendations on its future.
The grant, named the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant for a New York City police officer who was killed in the line of duty in 1988, would fund a variety of other initiatives as well, including allocating $16,390 for “Operation Nightwatch,”, a collaboration between city police and Monroe County probation officers that enforces curfew and runs violence intervention programs for young probationers.
The grant would also fund the hiring of a clinical supervisor for the Crisis Intervention Services Unit, the parent organization of the PIC Team. City Council is slated to vote on the bill on Nov. 14 and it is expected to pass.
What exactly the study will look at, and what effect it may have on the operations of the PIC Team, is unclear.
What is clear, though, is that city officials already regard the unit as successful. In a statement, a city spokesperson said the evaluation plans to build on the achievements of the PIC Team.
“PIC continues to succeed, serving as an example for other cities across the country. The team now responds to more than 350 calls each month. That’s more than many other cities with crisis response teams,” the statement reads. “It was established two-and-a-half years ago under a different mayor, and now the Evans administration is interested in objectively reviewing the program to assess its effectiveness and identify opportunities for further improvement and growth.”
Councilmember LaShay Harris, who serves as chair of the Recreation and Human Services Committee, said how success is quantified and what metrics would be studied will be determined as the city goes about searching for a firm to conduct the analysis. A firm would be selected through a request-for-proposals process.
“(The administration) said once that process is done, they will be sharing it with Council,” she said.
The PIC Team was launched in January 2021 as the culmination of a city scramble for better mental health response services after the death of Daniel Prude. The team was inspired by, and received guidance from, the Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets (CAHOOTS) program out of Eugene, Oregon. A hallmark of the CAHOOTS model is replacing police with trained social workers for cases involving suicidal people, substance abusers, and other mental health crises.
Last year, the PIC Team was estimated to have responded to nearly 10,000 calls for service, according to city of Rochester budget documents. Of those, 3,688 were carried out without the assistance of police or emergency personnel.
Housed under the Department of Recreation and Human Services, the PIC Team was budgeted for two emergency response supervisors and 12 emergency response social workers in this year’s budget. That spending plan reduced the number of social workers by one, but added a crisis response coordinator and a bilingual community support counselor.
