Sponsors (11)
The bill increases access to evidence-based crisis-response training—improving officer and public safety and helping under-resourced jurisdictions—at the cost of new federal spending, administrative constraints, and a risk that emphasis on law-enforcement responses could crowd out community-based alternatives.
Law enforcement, corrections, and emergency responders receive evidence-based behavioral health crisis training, reducing injuries and deaths for officers and people in crisis and improving on-scene public safety.
Rural, Tribal, and under-resourced local agencies gain access to training through federal grants and support for travel/lodging, enabling adoption of evidence-based crisis-response programs they might otherwise be unable to afford.
Standardized qualification standards and reporting requirements increase accountability and help improve the quality and consistency of crisis-response training programs.
Taxpayers may face increased costs and diversion of funds (including up to $10 million per year diverted from DOJ grant pools), reducing money available for other programs.
Emphasis on law enforcement–led crisis response could divert funding and attention away from non-police community-based crisis services (mobile crisis teams, behavioral health providers) that may better serve some people in crisis.
If training is poorly designed or implemented, grants may not deliver the promised reductions in injuries, deaths, or other public safety benefits.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Introduced March 31, 2025 by Marcia Carolyn Kaptur · Last progress March 31, 2025
Provides a Department of Justice grant program to pay for behavioral‑health crisis response training and related travel costs for state, local, and Tribal law enforcement and corrections agencies. The Attorney General may reserve up to $10 million per year (subject to appropriations) to run the program and must set provider qualification standards. Grants must supplement, not replace, existing local or state funding; administrative costs are capped at 3% of each grant. Applicants must submit basic agency data and training plans, and recipients must report annually and keep records for audit.