(Mike Osborne) — The City of Nashville revealed Monday that it has expanded the program that pairs Metro Police Officers with mental health professionals for some 911 calls.
City officials announced in a press statement that the Partners in Care initiative has begun operating in Nashville's Central District in the downtown core.
With that addition to the effort, officers and mental health clinicians are now available to respond to calls in three of the city's eight police precincts. The program was already at work in the North and Hermitage precincts.
The officer/therapist teams respond to calls involving individuals experiencing a mental health crisis. City officials say that, to date, Partners in Care teams have responded to roughly 3,000 calls, with less than four percent of those responses resulting in an arrest.