Sayreville Police team up with social workers to bring down use-of-force numbers
NEW JERSEY -- In an effort to bring down use-of-force numbers in its own department, Sayreville Police teamed up with social workers as part of a federally funded program.
"The first thing that you do is you try to envision the potential of might happen on the call and how you're going to respond to it," said Lt. James Novak with the Sayreville Police Department.
Novak said that thought has been on his mind every day since becoming a cop two decades ago. But he said after George Floyd was killed by a Minnesota police officer, he started looking into use-of-force records over a three-year period in his own department.
"Every one of them had a history of either being overly intoxicated by alcohol, drug abuse issues or mental health, diagnosed mental health problems," Novak explained.
He says he reached out to licensed clinical social workers Shante Middletown and Garyn Nathan. They came up with the program "PULSSE," short for "Proactive Union Of Law Enforcement And Social Service Experts."
Middletown and Nathan teams up with Sayreville Police to provide help to people with mental health conditions.
"There are individuals out there that are really just, they're hurting, they require services. Police are not trained to provide the services," Middletown said.
"I think that it's more of trying to have people understand that we are here to help and that we can help them not call to the police again on the second, third or fourth time," Nathan said. "By doing so, that's going to lead to a lower use of force."
The partnership allows PULSSE to provide assistance on the phone after looking at police reports or to respond to a call with Sayreville Police to give advice, mostly from a distance.
"Part of it could be if the situation is deemed safe enough, that we could be with a police officer at a situation and speak with them and attempt to de-escalate," Middletown said.
Novak said the program has helped 55 people since being implemented a month ago.
"They are the experts in the field, they know who to call, they know what questions to ask, and they really can help these people and help our community," Novak said.
"Coming back to Sayreville as an adult and trying to give back to the community, I am able to help people that I grew up with," Nathan said.
The PULSSE program is funded by a Department of Justice grant. Sayreville Police are hoping they will be able to keep it and spread it across the country.
Meanwhile, in 2022, New Jersey launched a separate pilot program called "Arrive Together" in Union and Cumberland counties. Gov. Phil Murphy has included $10 million in next year's proposed budget to expand the law enforcement and mental health specialists' co-responder initiative to the entire state.