Plymouth Police Launch Mental Health Initiative

A new two-year initiative in Plymouth is improving how police handle mental health crisis calls.

“In the last four years our calls for service related to behavioral help have gone up 59 percent,” said Plymouth Police Chief Mike Goldstein.

Plymouth is teaming up with the Minnetonka Police Department and Hennepin County in the pilot program.  The program pairs the departments with a shared county social worker. The goal is to connect people experiencing a mental health crisis and their families to appropriate resources to prevent future disasters.

The program has been underway for a few weeks. Chief Goldstein says he already sees a difference.

“We’re already assigning cases to the mental health unit. They review them, they go on to the social worker. She’s able to go out and do these follow up visits and to provide more consistent, and sustainable help that will hopefully provide better outcomes,” explained Goldstein.

There are several police departments, like Crystal, Brooklyn Park, St. Louis Park and Hopkins are adding mental health professionals to their staff. 

Plymouth