JACK SILBERBERG • REPORTER@LACLEDERECORD.COM
The Lebanon Police Department is continuing to develop a partnership for public safety.
The LPD and Compass Health Network have partnered on the creation of an embedded co-responder position within the department to assist with mental health incidents and connect people with resources. LPD Chief Jerry Harrison was excited for the program.
“For me, the biggest takeaway for this is mental illness is not a crime. We’re not going to arrest our way out of this. And, in fact, we can do much better than that,” Harrison said, saying they could reduce arrests, use of force, and unnecessary, expensive incarceration.
The Record had reported on the Lebanon City Council approving an agreement with Compass Health in January of this year for the co-responder, who would be available to assist officers during incidents related to mental health and would be embedded with the department. The program costs $103,615 a year. The co-responder program came about from a limited partnership between LPD and Compass Health that began August 2024.
Marissa Miles is the co-responder embedded in the department, where she has prior experience as a dispatcher in addition to her experience at Compass Health.
Having started the job at the end of April, Miles said the role was just getting off the ground in her late May interview.
In her role, Miles said ideally she would partner with officers on the road and on calls where she might be helpful. A lot of on-scene work would involve de-escalation techniques. Central to her role is connecting people with resources.
The goal of the position, she said, was to reduce recidivism rates.
“Like, a lot of time, people are pushed to extreme choices because they don’t know they have other options. And we really want to cut down on that,” Miles said.
The end goal, according to Harrison, was to improve the quality of life for the Lebanon community, with the position allowing law enforcement to put more time into improving its relationship with the community or solving crime while the position addressed mental health needs and connect people with resources.
Harrison saw the co-responder position addressing issues like domestic violence, child abuse, and substance abuse. With tools already in place like the local drug treatment court, Harrison said this position was meant to address what issues were not being met not already.
In addition to Compass Health, the LPD saw other partners for success in entities in the program like the Laclede County Sheriff’s Office, city and circuit court judges, and city county prosecutors, according to a document Harrison provided.
Looking at the larger picture, Jamie Manning, Vice President of Access and Urgent Care Services at Compass Health, said the clinician position is one of three co-responder roles in the network’s 26 counties and a growing ask by departments.
Compass Health’s partnerships with law enforcement were not unique, she said, with existing behavioral health liaison positions working to divert people from the criminal justice system to resources and services.
The co-responder is unique in that it is a dedicated position, she said, and Compass Health was grateful for the LPD’s insight as well as its willingness to form a partnership.
One hope for the co-responder role she shared that the role would reduce the familiar faces that first responders often meet and connect those people with ongoing services so that they can be treated with behavioral health versus criminal justice.
Another hope she shared was reducing jail and hospital visits by connecting people to appropriate services.
According to Manning, data showed that in similar roles, there was success in stabilizing a crisis in the community with the co-responders, with very few people needing a higher service level like jail or in-patient hospitalization.
Manning anticipated Compass Health’s co-responder program to continue to grow and saw it as a worthwhile investment.
In the first year of the LPD’s partnership with Compass Health, Harrison wanted an informal working relationship with the criminal justice system to divert qualifying people with mental illness out of the legal system by getting them needed help to develop – something he thought was achievable.
He also wanted to see a reduction in the use of force in arrests related and arrests related to mental health, and reduction in mental health calls in general because people were getting long-term care.
One thing Miles wanted to see was an increase in community partnerships in general to connect people with resources, like groceries, transportation or therapy, and increasing community awareness of those resources, many of which were already present.