The new policy will change how police in New Jersey respond to some mental health calls

TRENTON, NJ – New Jersey Attorney General Changes State Use-of-Force Policy After two fatal police shootings involving people experiencing mental health crises.

Attorney General Matthew Platkin says this is the first statewide policy of its kind and will require all New Jersey police departments to coordinate with mental health professionals when responding to a call about a barricaded person, a situation about which he says overwhelmingly involves people experiencing an emotional crisis and is the most likely call to end in injury.

The policy will also require all New Jersey police departments to train their tactical teams in crisis negotiation and deploy them with what Platkin calls “less lethal force,” such as Tasers and shields.

The state will also expand its “Get Together” program, which pairs police with mental health professionals at all departments when they respond to the type of barricade calls that involve someone having a mental health crisis.

Platkin said the changes will take effect as early as October.

The policy change comes in the wake of the fatal shootings of Andrew Washington, Victoria Lee

In 2023, Jersey City police officers shot and killed Andrew Washingtonand just last month, Fort Lee police shot and killed Victoria Lee. Both Washington and Lee had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and their families told 911 they were in the midst of a mental breakdown.

Neither the Jersey City nor Fort Lee police departments were enrolled in the Arrive Together program prior to these shootings.

“Do you think that if those departments were already involved in the Arrive Together program, Victoria Lee and Andrew Washington might be alive today?” Ali Bauman of CBS News New York asked Platkin.

“I cannot comment on these cases. But what can I say, learning from our experience overseeing fatal police encounters… We know that when you have a more clinical and enlightened approach, when you don’t ask law enforcement to do everything… We can save lives. We can produce better results. We can produce safer environments for the sufferer and safer for the responding officers.

Washington’s family filed a lawsuit against the Jersey City Police Department.

Victoria Lee’s family is demanding accountability for the fatal shooting

Lee’s family released a new statement Thursday demanding accountability for the July 28 shooting.