ASSEMBLY LAW AND PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY, No. 4366

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  JULY 20, 2020

The Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee reports favorably Assembly Bill No. 4366.

As reported by the committee, Assembly Bill No. 4366 requires the Police Training Commission (PTC) to contract with the New Jersey Crisis Intervention Team Center for Excellence to provide mental health training to local police officers.  

Specifically, under the bill, the PTC in the Division of Criminal Justice in the Department of Law and Public Safety is required to contract with the New Jersey Crisis Intervention Team Center of Excellence to assist and support counties in developing and implementing the Crisis Intervention Team model.  Under the bill, the “Crisis Intervention Team model” means the best practice jail diversion model originally developed by the Memphis Tennessee Police Department and implemented in New Jersey as a county based collaboration of professionals committed to improving the law enforcement and mental health systems’ response to persons experiencing a psychiatric crisis who come into contact with law enforcement first responders.  “New Jersey Crisis Intervention Team Center of Excellence” means a program of the Mental Health Association in Southwestern New Jersey serving as a support center to assist New Jersey counties in developing and implementing the Crisis Intervention Team model.

The bill directs the PTC to assume and maintain any existing contract between the New Jersey Crisis Intervention Team Center of Excellence and the Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) in the Department of Human Services in operation upon the effective date of the bill.  Upon the expiration of that contract, any new contract entered into under the bill between the New Jersey Crisis Intervention Team Center of Excellence and the PTC is to provide, at a minimum, the same provisions of the expired contract, originally entered into between the New Jersey Crisis Intervention Team Center of Excellence and the DMHAS.           

The bill also directs the PTC to require every municipal and county police officer appointed to a police department and force in this State, within five years of the effective date of the bill or by a date determined by the Attorney General, to complete the Crisis Intervention Team model as part of the officer’s in-service training.

      Finally, the bill provides that the PTC may develop and implement, in collaboration with the New Jersey Crisis Intervention Team Center of Excellence, a curriculum applying the Crisis Intervention Team model to persons experiencing an economic crisis or struggling with a substance abuse disorder who come into contact with law enforcement first responders.