Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2021, $139,964)
We, the Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office, hereto after DASO, are seeking funds in order to begin a Crisis Response Training Program for our agency that will provide training to all deputies on how to best address calls that may involve a person that is having a mental or behavioral health situation. Our program will be primarily designed to provide training and guidance to our deputies as well as procedures to determine how best to use the avenues they have available to keep persons that need mental assistance out of jail and get them connected with the help that they need. Over the last four years, DASO has seen an increase in the number of "domestic disturbance" calls responded to that have an individual that is experiencing a mental/behavioral crisis. We are planning this program to allow us to train our deputies, and develop working relationships and protocols with the Las Cruces Crisis Triage Center, the Memorial Medical Center and the Mesilla Valley Regional Dispatch to identify those most in need, keep them out of jail and get them the services that they need. Doña Ana County has a population of approximately 218195 citizens, 8% unemployment and an average of 26.4% of our population living below the poverty level both of which are above the national average. Our deputies answer calls in the most rural areas of our county which is just over 3000 square miles and often come in contact with individuals that do not know that help is available. We not only want to train our personnel to deal with possibly volatile situations but to also be able to provide information where help is available.
We will be designing and requiring a CRIT incident report that will help is to track these types of calls and track the outcome once the person is referred/taken for mental health care
Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office is currently only receiving Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant funding as a sub-recipient of the New Mexico Department of Public Safety federal award identification number 107000275.
Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office with be developing protocols and standard operating procedures to work with:
Crisis Triage Center, Las Cruces, New Mexico
Memorial Medical Center, Las Cruces, New Mexico
Mesilla Valley Regional Dispatch, Las Cruces, New Mexico
However, none of the above named entities will be subcontracted under this grant.