Waterloo regional police to launch new $9.3 million crisis call diversion program

The Waterloo Regional Police Service has received $12.3 million from the Ontario government, with the majority of the funding going towards a new pilot project aimed at improving the response to mental health crisis calls in the community.

Local leaders were on hand at the WRPS headquarters Tuesday morning to announce the three-year investment from the provincial Community Safety and Policing Grant Program (CSP).

The crisis call diversion project, which is receiving roughly $9.3 million, will offer a 24-hour service for those calling for mental health support and ensure the person in need receives the best immediate response, the province said in a news release.

Police chief Bryan Larkin said the initiative was designed in part from community feedback and could reduce police response by 20 per cent.

"Our goal is to provide the individual, our citizen in need, a better response," he said. "That could be community response, it could be police-free, it may be a diversion to 24/7 [newly launched service], the CMHA [Canadian Mental Health Association], or it may be an IMPACT [Integrated Mobile Police And Crisis Team], but also the reality may be it requires a police response to actually ensure that we support and help the individual."

The project will work in conjunction with a supporting agency to assess each call's level of emergency and risk.

Chief Larkin said police hope to get the program running by June.

WRPS is one of 90 police service boards receiving funding through CSP.

According to a the province's release, $1.5 million of the remaining grant to WRPS will go towards an initiative targeting gang and hate crimes, while the remaining $1.5 million will go towards the police board.