By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — We're just a few weeks in to the activity of the Hutchinson Police Department's Crisis Response Team, but the team continues to see some success.
"In about five weeks, they've already responded to 65 crisis calls," said Hutchinson Police Chief Jeff Hooper. "Forty-one of those were very serious crisis calls. They've managed to get over ten people, probably closer to 20 people at this point connected to services that previously weren't connected to mental health or substance abuse services in our community."
Hooper knew going in it would be busy.
"They have been able to take on those crisis calls and free up multiple officers for other duties on the street," Hooper said. "It's just been a real blessing to have a member of Horizons working out of our office and in fact, I had a good meeting with him in reference to, not only taking care of those crisis situations in our community, but he wants to assist us on our peer support team in taking care of our officers that have been through crisis situations and the mental health and stress that they go through."
Hooper intends to give periodic reports on the team to the City Council at least once every quarter.
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