The Madison Police Department is now using a third-party service to transport people involuntarily committed to the Winnebago Mental Health Facility. Located near Oshkosh, Winnebago is the only state-run psychiatric hospital. The department plans to run the pilot transfer program through the summer months to test the new policy.
For the pilot program, the city has contracted with the Green-Bay based transportation service REDI Transports, which operates transports for other police departments across the Midwest.
Until now, transporting people to just outside Oshkosh required two police officers to make the trip per patient. Each drive takes almost four hours round-trip, soaking up police time and city resources.
“We know it will reduce almost four hours in police time committed to emergency detention processes on the backend. They are very lengthy processes each time they occur. They can take double digit hours of officer time, start to finish… For each time historically this has happened in recent years, its been two officers out of service for those transports and unable to field other calls from the city. From just reducing our workload and the type of impact these types of incidents have on our staff time, I’m already looking at that as an obvious win,” says Assistant Chief of Police John Patterson, who oversees support and community outreach.
The decision to turn to a third party contractor for transport was mostly a budgetary decision driven by the Common Council. In last fall’s budget, the city set aside $50,000 to pay for the pilot program. The program may have other positive outcomes as well:
“If you’re experiencing a mental health crisis, a two-hour plus drive in police custody might not be the most pleasant way to end that experience of being involuntarily committed. So I hope that it is a better experience,” says Patterson.
At the end of Madison’s pilot program, the police department will report back with the projected savings the program could bring long-term, as well as a qualitative analysis of how well the transport service went.
The council will then review the results of the pilot program and decide if they want the program to be a more permanent part of the police budget moving forward.
Last year, Brown County suspended their contract with REDI Transports, following a prisoner escape at the Chicago O’Hare Airport, according to reporting from the Green Bay Press Gazette. The prisoner had been accompanied by a lone driver, and had managed to elude him in the crowded airport. The county found that REDI had erred in assigning only one drive to the transport.
Image courtesy of Brian Imagawa on Flickr.