Interlocal Agreement Offers Better Training for a Better Police Force

Azle News
Mark Michaels mark@azlenews.net
Feb 24, 2023

Mental health has become an important issue for many people in recent years. Especially for those who might have relatives with mental handicaps or those who may experience a mental health crisis. Crisis intervention teams (CIT) are specially trained police officers that handle possible situations that may occur with those with mental handicaps. Azle City Council voted in their last session to accept an intercity agreement to share training and resources with surrounding cities and create a specialized task force to handle such incidents.

Azle City Council voted Tuesday February 7, to enter into an agreement with surrounding cities like Lake Worth, Reno, Saginaw, White Settlement, Pelican Bay, and the My Health My Resources of Tarrant County (MHMRTC), a community center created to offer resources and help with those with mental health issues, to make an Interlocal Agreement (ILA) to share resources and training. This agreement will allow Azle police to partner with neighboring agencies to share information and training to jointly monitor and provide follow-ups to those individuals who may need it. The agreement would also authorize the creation of the Northwest Tarrant County Crisis Intervention Team (NWTC CIT) to establish a cooperative and mutually beneficial relationship with all involved.

The program itself has been in development for the past nine months. It was started by Fort Worth Police and the MHMRRTC to better serve their communities. The program was then pushed to be more encompassing of all surrounding cities by Lake Worth Commander Landon Rollins.

The Azle Police Department currently keeps 10 CIT who specialize in interactions with those who may be experiencing a mental health crisis. A part of these officer’s jobs is to follow-up with individuals to ensure they are receiving the services they need. This service helps to prevent any possible mental health crisis that may occur in the future, so they do not become a danger to themselves or others. These follow-ups are difficult since those who may need additional help are located outside of the jurisdiction of Azle Police Department. Other surrounding cities are experiencing the same challenges. While all officers receive a mandatory 40 hours of training in mental health crisis, Chief Bennet Hall hopes that all his officers will be trained CIT in the coming months.

“It’s about giving meaningful service to our community,” Hall said.

The agreement will last until all cities involved decide to disband it. If a city decides they no longer wish to be a part of the agreement, they may terminate their involvement at any time for any reason, as long as they provide a written notice to the other parties. Each participating city is required to provide at least one mental health peace officer to the NWTC CIT. The officer provided will receive hostage negotiation training and certification within one year of joining the NWTC CIT.

The cost of this agreement is the responsibility of each city involved. None of those in the agreement will be reimbursed by any other party involved for costs incurred. All wages, payments, damages, clothing, expenses, will be paid for by the officers’ regular employer. Hall assured the city council that there would be no significant financial burdens due to participation in the agreement.

“There may be a small expense for uniforms for the task for members,” he said.

Team members will wear subdued uniforms, as traditional uniforms often trigger apprehension in mental health patients.