Naperville police launch full-time mental health crisis unit

Naperville Police Department’s full-time Mobile Crisis Intervention Team, designed to better address the hundreds of mental health-related calls received every year, is up and running.

The department had been operating a hybrid version of the crisis intervention team since 2021. Last year, the Naperville City Council voted to fund a full-time team.

Naperville police receive about 1,000 mental health-related calls annually, with each taking an average of two hours to address. While more than 90% of the police department has crisis intervention training, the time it takes to respond properly to a mental health call takes away time from other responsibilities.

That’s where the Mobile Crisis Intervention Team, or MCIT for short, comes in. While a patrol officer may get to the scene of a crisis first, the unit can step in and take over, freeing that officer to do other work.

In his 25 years of policing, Police Chief Jason Arres said he couldn’t imagine there would one day be a team like MCIT.

“I never thought I’d see something like this. I don’t know that I would have thought of something like this,” he said. “It was not in policing. We were talking verbal judo back then. That was the big word for de-escalation, and that was just quickly trying to connect with someone.”

The team, which works Monday through Friday, consists of one police sergeant, five officers, four clinicians and one crisis intervention K-9. Typically, two officers and one clinician from the team respond to incidents involving mental health, family violence and missing persons.

“It also gives us the opportunity as officers in this unit — who interviewed and wanted to do this very niche job — a chance to actually see these calls through,” police officer Justin Cunat said.

After seven years with the department, Cunat said he is used to jumping from call to call and passing work off to social workers, but that meant he didn’t always get to see a crisis fully resolved or to follow up with individuals and their families after the initial incident.

Now, as a member of the MCIT, he responds not only to the initial call but gets to see those crises through to the end, he said.

The unit’s furriest member, Chance, is a crucial part of the team — and the only police dog of its kind in the state, according to Arres.

While other departments have comfort dogs, Chance has special training as a crisis intervention response team K-9 that allows him to be on calls with officers.

His presence in high-intensity situations, Arres said, can help people feel calmer and open up about their experiences. Studies show that crisis intervention K-9s have had particular success in helping child and adult sexual assault victims disclose their traumatic experiences.

While the team is in its early stages of operations, they have already had some initial successes. The team recently responded to a family with a judicial petition for a loved one to receive an evaluation.

“(It) took a significant amount of time working with the individual (in crisis), but ultimately (we) got that person to voluntarily go to the hospital and get the help that they needed,” Sgt. Jonathan Pope said. “Even at the end of it, the family was very appreciative and thankful for the efforts. And even asking, like, ‘We’ve not seen this response before. Like, what is this?’”

Convincing a person in crisis to go to the hospital, Arres said, is like convincing a criminal to put on handcuffs and go to jail.

And the work does not end there. Police counselor Eirene Boulougouris said that even after a person is discharged from the hospital, the team follows up with them to build trust and provide additional assistance.

When asked how the team will track its success, Arres said some things will be difficult to quantify. But he said he hopes the unit will be the primary responder when there’s a mental health call during its hours of operation.

“My goal would be at least 50% to 60% of the calls when they’re working, they’re taking or becoming the primary (responder) on, as opposed to a patrol officer,” Arres said.

cstein@chicagotribune.com