Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Acting Director Kristen Mahoney, and other Department of Justice officials are participating in the Taking the Call virtual conference, taking place October 20-21, 2021.
The conference, presented by BJA, the Council of State Governments, and the University of Cincinnati, is highlighting innovative models for handling emergency calls, focusing on calls for service involving mental health or substance use crises, homelessness, quality-of-life issues, and other situations.
"Communities across the country are now seeing these calls as opportunities for intervention and treatment rather than purely as law-and-order matters," said BJA Acting Director Mahoney. "We are grateful to our partners, and to public safety and public health professionals nationwide, for their willingness to collaborate with one another and find solutions that benefit individual and community health."
Read the press release to learn more about this event and efforts to address these situations.