PINEVILLE, N.C. — The Pineville Police Department has a new program to help officers respond to calls involving people with developmental and physical disabilities. 

It’s called the Safe Outcomes program, and it lets officers know before they arrive on scene whether the person they’re responding to has a medical or developmental disability. 

Sgt. Josh Harb has been with the Pineville Police Department for 15 years and says the toughest calls usually involve someone struggling with mental health. 

“We’ll get calls, ‘Hey there’s some guy out here petting a dead deer’, and that’s the information we have,” he said. 

Harb is hoping the program will help officers get the tools they need to respond to calls safely. Part of the program includes a form Pineville residents fill out ahead of time that shares a person’s mental health status with first responders. The information is stored in the dispatch system, then sent to officers on their way to a call. 

“They could put in there that they have sensory overload, so if it’s an emergency call and we’re pulling up, maybe we turn the lights off, you know all the lights outside the car because that could trigger it for them,” he said. 

According to a 2015 study from the Treatment Advocacy Center, at least 25% of fatal officer-involved incidents involved a person diagnosed with a serious mental illness. Harb says in order for Safe Outcomes to be a success in Pineville, residents need to help and submit their information to the system.

For more details or to fill out the form, click here.