Tulsa Police To Start New Integrated Response Team To Respond To Mental Health Calls

Tulsa Police is starting a new Integrated Response Team in 2024 that will help officers respond to mental health calls. 

This new team will have a mental health professional at each of TPD's patrol divisions in the evening hours to directly respond to help. 

"Will be outside of the normal hours of the CRT response, so if CRT ends at 5, they are coming on at 5 and working into the evening hours," said Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin. 

Chief Wendell Franklin says a new Integrated Response Team will put a clinician at each patrol division.

"They will house at the division, and when summoned by an officer, they will leave that division, and respond to an officer that request a clinician on scene," he said.

This is similar to the department's critical response team, but with IRT, the clinicians can respond directly to calls to meet officers. 

Krista Lewis with Family & Children Services says this will let them go to more calls in a timely manner. 

"So instead of traveling point to point with an officer and a fire paramedic, they will go to where the officer is, which allows us to be more mobile," she said.

She says getting a mental health clinician to the scene as quickly as possible is an important way to make sure people in crisis feel safe. 

"Our hope is that we will continue to focus on stabilization in natural environment, but should someone need an intense or higher level of care, we will be able to make that happen for them," she said.

Lewis says the goal is for IRT to eventually be available 24/7.