Antioch mental health crisis response team launch to be celebrated Monday, May 8
Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe invites residents to the launch of the City’s non-police crisis response team. The program will be the first 24/7 crisis response team in Contra Costa County and one of few in the Bay Area.
First proposed in 2020 by District 4 Councilwoman Monica Wilson a pilot program was first approved on 5-0 votes of the city council in March 2021, and again in Dec. 2021. Then in Oct. 2022 the council chose the Felton Institute to operate the program at a cost of between $1.8 and $2.2 million per year, also on a 5-0 vote. (See related articles here, here and here)
Thorpe calls the program “the crown jewel of the City’s largest and most ambitious police reform efforts”.
The program’s launch will be celebrated with a ribbon cutting in the City parking lot on W. 2nd Street across from City Hall at 11 a.m.