Salt Lake County Metro Crisis Response and Intervention Training Program

The Unified Police Department of Greater Salt Lake (UPD) was created in 2010 and serves over 206,000 people in many cities and communities. The Salt Lake County Sheriff serves as its Chief Executive Officer. UPD’s model allows communities to have comprehensive police services at a fraction of the cost of establishing and maintaining their own police force.      

The UPD requests $250,000 in funding to create a training program for law enforcement officers and law enforcement agencies throughout Salt Lake County. UPD has not previously been a recipient of Crisis Response Intervention Training grant funds.

In 2017, Unified Police Department’s Salt Lake County Metro Mental Health Unit (Metro Mental Health Unit) was created to support patrol response to mental health calls. While this unit has been successful and well received, calls for service with a mental health component have steadily increased. UPD received nearly 2,700 crisis calls in 2021, but the Metro Mental Health Unit was only able to manage 25% due to staffing challenges within the unit. This supports the need for focused training on mental health responses for law enforcement officers, so that they are capable of responding to a citizen experiencing a mental health crisis.

The Metro Mental Health Unit proposes reviewing and merging two curriculums: the State of Utah’s mandated mental health and other crisis intervention responses, and the nationally recognized Memphis Model. The Metro Mental Health Unit’s goal is to train UPD Officers as well as other law enforcement agencies throughout Salt Lake County.