Police receive grant for crisis response team

By Jeff Harrison
Midwest City Beacon

The Midwest City Police Department has been awarded a grant to help people experiencing mental health crises.

The State of Oklahoma and the District Attorneys Council awarded the department $158,074 to develop a Crisis Intervention and Response Team or CIRT.

The city’s application was approved for Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs, 2024 BYRNE State Crisis Intervention Program funds to develop a Crisis Intervention and Response Team within the Midwest City Police Department.

A full-time Crisis Intervention and Response Team will assist and alleviate much of the stress on the patrol division when high risk mental health incidents occur. A trained team of officers and a licensed mental health professional working together to assess and evaluate situations, consider de-escalation techniques, and recognize key indicators of mental health crisis to assist in an appropriate intervention strategy and resolution.

Funds will be used to contract with a licensed mental health professional and provide officer overtime. Other aspects of the program include working with local middle and high school youth, monitoring the high risk and homeless population, and the purchase/training of a therapy dog.

The program consists of two full-time officers and Lt. Jeremy Zuniga.

Chief Greg Wipfli said about 15-20 years ago, the department would rely on Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office to assist calls if someone was having a crisis. The police department later had a few officers receive training in CIRT. That later led to officers becoming trained as instructors.

“We’re able to train all of our officers with the CIRT program and now we’re trying to take it one step further,” Wipfli said. “It’s more proactive than reactive.”

Ward 5 councilwoman Sara Bana welcomed the CIRT program.

“This is a proactive effort, and this puts our city above and beyond what many other cities are doing,” she said. “This makes our citizens safer. This makes our officers safer, and it also reduces the tax dollars we spend on officers unnecessarily going out.”

Bana asked if the city could continue exploring future funding sources for the program. City Manager Tim Lyon said they’re taking baby steps but could look into it.
Ward 1 councilwoman Susan Eads asked if the city would hire two additional officers for the program. Wipfli said they are 100% staffed and can assign some officers to the CIRT program.

“Depending on how this year goes, if the program grows and develops, we’ll look at adding additional people,” Wipfli said.

The city council unanimously approved a request to accept the grant at the Oct. 22 meeting.