The Cookeville City Council discussed the future of the Cookeville Community Response Program during Monday’s work session, weighing whether to continue the initiative.
City Manager James Mills said the city has partnered with Volunteer Behavioral Health through a grant to provide a response team rather than police to respond to non-violent mental crisis events. Cookeville Fire Chief Benton Young said the program has responded to an estimated 400 calls since the program started in 2024.
“It also takes a large burden off our emergency room, our jail system, our criminal justice system, you know, our police department may be limited to you know, they either got to take them to the emergency room or arrest them and take them to jail,” Young said. “So that frees that burden up.”
Young also said the program has saved taxpayer dollars with fewer trips to the emergency room. Mills said the grant used to fund the program expires at the end of March, and will ask for council approval on Thursday for the city to cover the program expenses for the remainder of the fiscal year.
“What that means is we’ll have to pick up the cost for the EMT position for the remainder of this fiscal year, which I estimate to be about $14,000,” Mills said. “We would also be responsible for the operation of this, any maintenance, I believe, to the van, gas, and so forth, for the rest of this fiscal year.”
Police Chief Scott Winfree said he supports the program as the response teams not only respond to the calls, but also follow up with the individuals.
“That is very important because where in the past we might deal with someone and then two or three days later we deal with them again and deal with them again,” Winfree said. “And what I’ve seen is a reduction of the number of times we have to continually see the same person, and I believe it’s helped significantly on our end.”
Mills said the memorandum of agreement does not include an expiration date and allows either the city or Volunteer Behavioral Health to opt out. He added that the council can revisit the program’s long-term future during upcoming budget discussions.
“Maybe if we go through our budget, we can explore,” Mills said. Of course, our budget is going to be tight like everybody’s, but this program, I think, shows that, like Benton said, it actually ends up saving taxpayer dollars when you’re in the hospital or police officers or whoever’s there.”
Mills said the Volunteer Behavioral Health is okay with the MOA moving forward. The city council will meet again at City Hall on Thursday at 5pm.
