MMHPI Teams Up with Caruth Police Institute
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All too often, police officers are the first people to interact with people who are suffering a mental health crisis. That’s why MMHPI has long been committed to helping pioneer new approaches and programs that both improve the methods police use in such situations, and also help support the mental health of the officers themselves.
To that end, MMHPI has partnered with the University of North Texas at Dallas to transform UNT-D’s Caruth Police Institute (CPI) into the premier police training, policy analysis, technical assistance and research organization, both in Texas and nationally.
CPI is supported by the Communities Foundation of Texas (CFT), and was initially seeded with funding from the W.W. Caruth, Jr. Fund at CFT.
The new CPI, which officially launched with a press event this week, is being led by MMHPI’s B.J. Wagner, who is serving as its interim Executive Director.
The Caruth Police Institute represents a unique, academic-practitioner model in police science, and serves as a resource for law enforcement officers all across Texas. The new collaboration with the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute enhances CPI’s existing expertise in police policy and adds to its ability to conduct research, evaluate programs and improve police operations, which will allow CPI to grow into one of the finest law enforcement policy institutes in Texas and the country. I am honored to lead the Caruth Police Institute during this period of revitalization.
BJ Wagner, Interim Executive Director, Caruth Police Institute
The partnership also creates a 19-member Executive Advisory Board that includes a dozen police chiefs from departments across Texas, and will be led by Board Chair and Irving Chief of Police Jeff Spivey.
UNT Dallas President Bob Mong praised MMHPI in the announcement.
“By bringing MMHPI’s abundant skill sets to CPI, we can increase the reach and scope of our training, add for the first time a powerful research component, raise the visibility of CPI in the community and become one of the most important police training institutes in America,” he said.
The first meeting of the Advisory Board happened Tuesday.