BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Police Department will be deploying a Behavioral Health Team in October.

What You Need To Know

  • The City of Buffalo and police union reached an agreement to begin a Behavioral Health Team that will include a partnership with trained mental health clinicians on scene with police
  • Mayor Byron Brown says the plan has been in the works for some time now in partnership with Endeavor Health Services
  • The team will include at least two lieutenants and six trained officers, along with three mental health care clinicians and a program supervisor
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The move is in response to Saturday's shooting when a man dealing with mental health issues allegedly struck a police officer with a baseball bat and was shot.

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown says officers responding to a scene where someone is experiencing a mental health crisis will be able to call for the Behavioral Health Team to join and advise them on how to best de-escalate a situation.

"While there might not be a one size fits all policy, the guiding principle should always be to make every attempt to deescalate a situation and peacefully resolve it so that the person experiencing a crisis gets the help that they need,” Brown (D) said.

The partnership is made possible by $300,000 in grants through Endeavor Health Services. 

"So as the clinicians that are embedded in the police department, we'll be responding alongside the officers to provide those rapid assessments, mental health evaluations, and to make sure the individuals who we are responding to have access to clinical services, and really try to saturate these individuals into the mental health and substance abuse systems,” said Sarah Bonk, Behavioral Health Team at Endeavor Health Services program manager.

Six trained officers, two lieutenants, three clinicians and a program supervisor will be part of the Behavior Health Team and respond to calls to help officers when needed. 

In the meantime, before the new team is up and running, police lieutenants will be sent to scenes to supervise the mental health situations.

Common Council approved the plan back in July. Mayor Brown blamed the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association for holding up the process of implementing the Behavior Health Team. PBA president John Evans said the administration is just looking for a scapegoat.

Evans said the police union would welcome more training for situations involving mental health and substance abuse issues. His hope is that the Behavior Health Team will give police another resource when responding to calls that can be unpredictable.

"If their expertise, their knowledge, their training can thwart an incident, we'll give it a try, right? I guess it's worth a try," Evans said.

Mayor Brown was also asked why police officers are not typically equipped with tasers to use as an option before live bullets. Brown said more than $1 million in cuts to the police budget have prevented that. Common Council authorized $417,000 for tasers in May 2019.

Evans said the PBA would support the purchase and use of tasers.

Also on Friday, an agreement was reached between the city and PBA on the policy for police body-worn cameras.