The Cape Girardeau Police Department is getting help when it responds to situations involving mental and behavioral health crises.
The Cape P-D is collaborating with the Community Counseling Center in a program called the Co-Responder Unit or C-R-U.
Two behavioral health specialists are embedded within the Police Department and have already started assisting officers and educating the Police Department on appropriate mental health crisis response and resources.
In recent years, the Cape Girardeau Police Department reports it has seen an escalation in mental health calls. From 2020 to 2022, Cape Girardeau police officers were dispatched to over 5,000 welfare checks and they spent an average of 61 minutes on calls that involved a behavioral health crisis.
Cape Girardeau is one of few jurisdictions in the State of Missouri to employ the co-responder program.
