FY23 Implementing Crisis Intervention Teams- Community Policing Development Solicitation | O COPS 2023 171554

Opportunity Information: Apply for O COPS 2023 171554

The FY23 Implementing Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT) opportunity is a discretionary grant program run by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office), under the Community Policing Development (CPD) solicitation. At its core, it supports the community policing approach, meaning law enforcement agencies are encouraged to work through partnerships and practical problem-solving to address the conditions that contribute to crime, public safety concerns, and community fear. Within that larger community policing framework, this particular funding focuses on improving how police respond to people experiencing mental health and behavioral health crises, with an emphasis on safer encounters, better outcomes for individuals in crisis, and greater diversion away from arrest and deeper justice-system involvement when treatment or services are more appropriate.

The program is grounded in federal statutory authority from the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (as amended) and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (Title I, Part Q). Like most federal grant programs, awards are contingent on the availability of appropriated funds and may carry additional conditions if laws or federal requirements change. The COPS Office also highlights broader priorities that shape its grantmaking, including advancing civil rights and racial equity, increasing access to justice, supporting victims and justice-impacted individuals, strengthening community safety, addressing evolving threats, and building trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.

Funding is structured as multiple awards with an award ceiling of up to $400,000 per award, and the solicitation anticipated roughly 28 awards. The opportunity (CFDA 16.710) was posted March 8, 2023, with an original closing date of May 1, 2023. Eligible applicants are specifically limited to state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement agencies. In other words, organizations that are not law enforcement agencies are not competitive for this particular CIT funding stream, even if they provide behavioral health services or related training.

The purpose of the funding is practical implementation and expansion. The COPS Office notes that law enforcement has improved crisis response over time using models such as CIT training, crisis triage centers, co-response teams, and embedded mental health or behavioral health professionals. This grant program is meant to help agencies build on those approaches by creating or expanding specialized crisis intervention capabilities and by embedding or partnering with licensed mental and behavioral health services so that crisis calls are handled more safely and effectively. The overarching intent is to reduce harm, improve officer and community safety, and increase diversion to care, services, and stabilization options rather than defaulting to criminal enforcement responses for people whose primary need is treatment or support.

Allowable uses of funds are tied to building and operating CIT-type responses. Examples listed in the solicitation include overtime for sworn personnel involved in crisis response activities, salaries and contracts for mental health professionals, purchasing or leasing non-patrol vehicles used for crisis response programs, and costs for training and equipping staff (both sworn and non-sworn, depending on the model). The COPS Office explicitly encourages applications from small, rural, tribal, and regional agencies, recognizing that these jurisdictions often face resource limitations and provider shortages. The solicitation points to regional or shared-service models as a strong option, such as multiple agencies partnering with a mental health provider for a joint CIT program or hosting regional CIT trainings that spread capacity across a wider area.

There are also clear boundaries on what the program will not fund. Proposals that do not actually create or expand specialized teams, partnerships with mental/behavioral health providers, or crisis intervention training are out of scope. Projects aimed at hiring sworn law enforcement personnel are also out of scope for this grant; agencies seeking officer-hiring funds are directed to the separate COPS Hiring Program. Put simply, this opportunity is not meant to increase headcount of sworn officers, but to strengthen crisis-response systems, partnerships, and practices.

The COPS Office places strong emphasis on “good guidance” and practical, usable outcomes. It expects projects to be quality-driven (with actionable steps that reduce variation in performance), evidence-based (aligned with the best available research), accessible (clear language and manageable formats for the field), and memorable (easy for practitioners to apply under real-world pressure). Applicants are also expected to pay attention to COPS Office performance measures when designing activities and to follow the COPS Office Editorial and Style Manual for deliverables where applicable. For site-specific work, letters of support from targeted agencies are strongly encouraged, which matters in multi-agency or provider-partnership designs.

Applications are expected to be detailed about both need and readiness. The project narrative is required to address the agency’s current mental health crisis response capacity, including any formal agreements already in place (for example, agreements with service providers or prosecutors), gaps in service, and specific unmet needs. Applicants must describe the partnership structure with behavioral or mental health providers, including who the provider will be or how the provider will be selected, and how licensing and compliance requirements will be met. Because many communities face shortages of behavioral health professionals, the solicitation also pushes applicants to budget realistically and competitively for qualified clinicians, taking into account education, credentials, experience, and the specialized nature of working alongside law enforcement in the field.

A major evaluation and accountability component runs throughout the solicitation. Applicants should present data showing demand for crisis services, such as call volumes, referrals, civil commitments, repeat calls for service, and indicators of law enforcement workload tied to mental health-related incidents. They also need a plan for determining effectiveness during the award period, including what data will be collected and how it will be used to assess outcomes and guide improvements. The program further requires applicants to explain how the proposed work will not duplicate other local or federal funding, how the agency will inform the public about the service, and how the community will be engaged. Sustainability matters as well: agencies are expected to describe how they intend to maintain and continue the effort after the federal grant period ends.

Partnership documentation is treated as a serious requirement, not a formality. The solicitation calls for a record of agreement such as an MOU, MOA, contract, or at minimum a signed letter of intent that lays out the partnership that will occur if the award is made. It also asks for resumes/CVs or job descriptions for key personnel, reflecting the expectation that agencies are planning staffing and roles in a concrete way rather than proposing vague concepts.

Deliverables are centered on real implementation outputs and a shareable final product. Agencies must clearly identify what they will produce or put in place (for example, CIT training for sworn and non-sworn staff, co-response services, embedded clinician programs, and formalized agreements with mental health organizations). At the end of the project, recipients must produce a report summarizing what they implemented, how it went, lessons learned, and how they communicated with and engaged the communities they serve. That report must also present outcome and activity data such as number of calls, referrals and their outcomes, civil commitments, time spent by officers, time recovered, and repeat calls for service. The report is intended to function as a case study that can be shared nationally, and the COPS Office may publish it with editing, design, and distribution support at no cost to the recipient.

The program also builds in learning and field support beyond the dollar amount. Awarded agencies are expected to budget for at least one person to travel to and attend a national conference on crisis intervention. In addition, funded agencies can participate in a community of practice with other awardees and receive training and technical assistance from the designated Crisis Intervention Training Provider, which is meant to help agencies troubleshoot implementation challenges, standardize effective practices, and improve outcomes over time.

For applicant support, the solicitation directs programmatic questions to the COPS Office Response Center (800-421-6770) or AskCopsRC@usdoj.gov during normal weekday business hours (Eastern Time), excluding federal holidays.

• The Department of Justice, Community Oriented Policing Services in the law, justice and legal services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY23 Implementing Crisis Intervention Teams- Community Policing Development Solicitation" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.710.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 08, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 01, 2023. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $400,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 28 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for O COPS 2023 171554

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