March 03, 2025

190: Everything Police need to know about Crisis / Co-Responder Units: the what, why, and how to start w/ Sgt. Jamie Ford and Susie Kroll (MHP)

56 minutes

Crisis and Co-Responder units began popping up much more in recent years, as mental health and substance epidemics became some of the biggest discussed issues across the nation and beyond. In this episode, I’m joined by former partners: cop and mental health professional that worked in this exact capacity, and who speak and teach on these topics.

We cover everything a new cop, co-responder officer, police leader, or MHP needs to know to evaluate “the why” and how to implement such a program or unit- and takeaways from their lessons in crisis response in the community.

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Jamie is a patrol sergeant with the Redmond Police Department (WA), a seasoned field training officer, an implicit bias and procedural justice instructor, a negotiator with the North Sound Metro SWAT Hostage Negotiation Team, and a member of the King County CIT Coordinators Committee.

Jamie has been a part of Redmond's THRIVE initiative as a co-responding officer since the program's implementation and has been involved in crisis intervention at the local, state, and national level. Before coming to Redmond Jamie began his law enforcement career with the University of Texas Police Department in Austin, Texas and is a Coast Guard veteran.

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-ford-rpd?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app

Email: jford@redmond.gov

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Susie earned her Masters of Arts in Counseling Psychology from City University of Seattle and an alum of the University of Washington. Susie started as a Clinician with a local community behavioral health agency upon earning her Masters.

Susie was the founding Mental Health Professional for the Law Enforcement and Mental Health Professional Co-Response Programs in Shoreline, Kenmore, Kirkland, Lake Forest Park, Bothell, Redmond, and Duvall PDs. She is a national educator and speaker on Crisis & De-Escalation, Mental Health, Behavioral Threat Assessment Management, and Crisis Negotiation. She instructed at the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission and is the Mental Health Advisor for Crisis Systems

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*the opinions expressed in all episodes of this podcast and related materials do not reflect on any departments agencies.

music credit: Drive by AShamaluevMusic

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By Eric Tung

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