Members of the Warwick Police Officers must be prepared to deal with situations involving a person experiencing mental health issues/crisis and know how to respond to these situations in an appropriate manner. Helping people with mental illnesses and their families obtain services from public agencies, community mental health organizations, hospitals, and related support services have emerged as an essential role for police.  It is estimated that 7-10% of all police calls involve a person in a mental health crisis. There is no denying the high volume of such calls in the City of Warwick and the significant number of reoccurring encounters with people experiencing mental health issues.

Sergeant Josh Myer is in charge of the Mental Health Crisis Response Team.  His email is:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The department embarked on a relationship with our community mental health partners aimed at improving our collective response to people experiencing mental health crisis. This collaborative effort began with a comprehensive 40 hour Mental Health Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training for a subset of volunteer WPD officers that would become our Mental Health Crisis Response Team (MHCRT).  Officers assigned to the MHCRT have completed and continuously pursue training sessions associated with mental health. The knowledge, skills, and abilities these officers have gained from this specialized response training is routinely applied when interacting with the public.  The MHL acts works in conjuctionn with the MHCRT, our community mental health stakeholders and partners, and helps coordinate the MHCRT efforts to include training, meetings, case activity, and follow ups.

We have recently developed and implemented an outreach Community Wellness Program.  MHCRT officers conduct coordinated and targeted follow up visits with persons recently contacted with having mental health issues, persons with substance use disorders, homeless persons and elders identified as having a diminished mental capacity.  The purpose of the contacts are to keep a check on a distressed person’s status, to offer further social services, check on treatment progress and maintain a positive police relationship with those persons and their friends and family.  They are not enforcement related.