police in the state's largest city are now responding to certain 9-1-1 calls with a mental health expert the expansion of New Jersey's arrive together program is coming to Newark after having success in dozens of other towns across nine counties helping people in a mental health Crisis get the help they need and reducing fatal police encounters senior political correspondent David Cruz reports we've asked law enforcement to do too much we've asked them to be not just Patrol officers but mental health professionals and social workers and addiction counselors and Behavioral Health Specialists as the state's chief law enforcement officer attorney general Plotkin has to thread a needle when it comes to balancing police community relations especially in the wake of the Naji Seabrook shooting in Patterson this year today he was in Newark a city which has been on the Forefront of progressive approaches to law enforcement to announce an expansion of the states arrived to get the program in the city which will see a chunk of the state's 10 million dollar expansion of arrived together it is clear from The Experience we've had Statewide that arrive is Saving Lives it's providing people an opportunity to get the treatment that they need it's not pulling people into the criminal justice system that don't deserve to be there and frankly aren't going to benefit from being there and instead it's meeting them where they are with the resources that these fine folks have like Mental Health Services counseling referrals and critically follow-up law enforcement and mental health workers sharing the scene of a call when someone is experiencing a mental health crisis some in Patterson questioned why police didn't let crisis workers do more in the Seabrooks shooting it's a delicate balance but Keisha yuray who runs newark's office of violence prevention and Trauma recovery says who leads depends on the situation I will ultimately say um we assess right so when we get there you assess the situation like the Attorney General said the person said I don't trust enforcement and if they clearly say that then you you need to be able to um intervene in a way that doesn't make them feel less safe so the ultimate goal is their safety the ultimate goal is to get them to treatment the ultimate goal and it shouldn't matter who does it fatal police encounters are any use of force obviously the goal is to eliminate them I think every officer would tell you the last thing they want is for one of those incidents to become one of those calls that they take to become a violent or tragic and I believe the way that we will reduce those numbers and I think the evidence is bearing that out is by driving or by providing the mental health care in a way that is responsive to the needs of that individual the state is expanding arrive together to cover all 21 counties acknowledging that one size does not fit all and that getting it right is more critical than ever I'm David Cruz NJ Spotlight News [Music]