One year after the fatal police shooting of Andrew Washington, Jersey City leaders today officially opened a new public safety de-escalation training center, a facility the city says is the first of its kind in the state to help with tactical training and more techniques to prevent serious or fatal injuries.

Washington was killed while experiencing a mental health episode.

But as Ted Goldberg reports, not everyone in the community is convinced a new training center is the best approach.

Leaders say the Jersey City Public Safety Training Facility will do much more than just train police.

All right.

Community wants transparency and this facility will bring that transparency to the community.

This converted warehouse will teach de-escalation training to Jersey City police and police from other communities that could come here.

Training is important, but it has to be tied in to how the officers are behaving every day.

We have to account for what we're doing and then we have to train to try to get better at it.

We're just so happy to provide de-escalation services, which are top priority for the officers and the staff in our city that is located within Jersey City, which we haven't had for a really long time.

The building features a pistol range with targets holding various objects like guns and phones, teaching police how to react in real world scenarios.

Mayor Steve Fulop says the training will be a big help for a city that's seen fewer homicides over the last couple of years.

We have the lowest homicide rate last year lower than any city east of Texas, and this year we are trending even lower.

For a city of this size, to have single digit homicides really speaks volumes about the work that the JCP has done.

Mayor Fulop says the de-escalation techniques taught here are more important than ever, especially as New Jersey communities grapple with how to respond to mental health emergencies.

Mental health issues are at the forefront of the conversation, both in here, as you saw in the simulators and nationally as it should be.

We track that in Jersey City very closely, and of course, we track use of force around mental health issues.

This facility is opening about a year after Jersey City police shot and killed Andrew Washington, a man experiencing a mental health episode.

In a statement, his family said, We welcome the news that Jersey City officials are making changes to their police training tactics.

The announcement of this new de-escalation training center, in our view, is an implicit acknowledgment that Andrew Drew Washington would be alive today if the police had responded appropriately to his family's call for help.

Phillips says plans for this building were drawn up well before the shooting, and that use of force subject to injury is fairly rare For 911 calls in Jersey City point to five of 1% of those calls that were responded.

So to give a little perspective on how small that is and how diligent the JCPenney is on that.

But as Dr. Shea said, we're always looking for ways to do better.

And we're in constant conversation with the attorney general on how we can incorporate some of their practices.

One of the AG's recommendations has not been accepted.

Arrive together a statewide program that pairs mental health professionals with police for certain 911 calls.

Director of Public Safety James Shea says part of the reason Jersey City isn't on board is how the program has been marketed.

The public believes that it will be an alternative.

They can respond instead of the police when the truth is that they will not respond until the police secure the scene.

Just like is happening now.

They will always wait for a JC PD and that's standard practices everywhere in the country and arrive together will not replace that.

It will place officers in calls where there is no risk to an officer, which we agree is a great thing.

And you could see from the call response that we have that the risk factor is very, very low.

Jersey City is also applying for a state grant for $2 million that would expand social services under a law named for Drew.

WASHINGTON.

In Jersey City, I'm Ted Goldberg.

NJ Spotlight News.