Attorney General Matthew Platkin says this is the first statewide policy of its kind and will require all police departments in New Jersey to coordinate with mental health professionals when they're responding to a call for a barricaded person, a situation he says overwhelmingly involves people experiencing an emotional crisis and is the most likely call to end in an injury.
The policy will also require all New Jersey police departments to train their tactical teams in crisis negotiation and deploy them with what Platkin calls "less lethal force," such as tasers and shields.
The state will also expand its "Arrive Together" program, which pairs police with mental health professionals to all departments for when they respond the type of barricaded calls involving someone having a mental health crisis.
Platkin said the changes will take effect as early as October.
Policy change comes following deadly shootings of Andrew Washington, Victoria Lee
Neither the Jersey City nor the Fort Lee police departments were enrolled in the Arrive Together program prior to those shootings.
"Do you think if those departments were already involved in the Arrive Together program that Victoria Lee, Andrew Washington might be alive today?" CBS News New York's Ali Bauman asked Platkin.
"I can't comment on those cases. But what I can say, learning from our experience overseeing fatal police encounters ... We know that when you take a clinical and more enlightened approach, when you don't ask law enforcement to do everything ... We can save lives. We can produce better outcomes. We can produce environments that are safer for the individual who's suffering and safer for the officers responding," Platkin said.
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