Toledo City Council Public Safety Committee Meeting on Co-Responder Program, Substation, and Police Conduct – June 4, 2026
Toledo City Council Public Safety Committee Meeting – June 4, 2026
The Toledo City Council Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform Committee met on June 4, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. to receive updates on a new co-responder behavioral health program, the long-planned multi-district community police substation, and recent incidents involving Toledo Police Department (TPD) officers. The meeting included presentations from the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) and TPD leadership, followed by extensive public testimony.
Discussion Items
Co-Responder Program Update
- Presenters: Andy Minton (Behavioral Health Criminal Justice Coordinator, CJCC) and Lt. Kelly Russell (CIT Coordinator, TPD)
- Program Overview: A co-responder unit pairs law enforcement officers with behavioral health clinicians to respond to crisis calls. The program was developed from a 2022 TPD finding that 21% of incidents requiring force (130 of 611) involved individuals with suspected mental health issues. The Mental Health and Recovery Services Board (MHRSB) allocated levy funds in 2024, and the CJCC secured a federal Connect and Protect grant ($550,000).
- Structure: Two co-responder units will serve the central and south districts. Each unit has a clinician hired by the Zepf Center, who will ride along with different CIT-trained TPD officers each shift. A case manager will follow up with individuals after crisis contacts. The program aims to de-escalate, divert from jail, and connect to services.
- Timeline: Tentative launch date of July 1, 2026, pending federal approval on budget revisions. The grant period is four years (one planning, three implementation). Clinicians will initially work day shifts (approx. 6:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m.) due to workforce shortages; nighttime expansion is a future goal.
- Metrics: Tracking dispositions, charges, recidivism, service connections, and use of force. Data will be pulled from existing criminal justice systems (NORIS).
- Council Questions: Councilmembers inquired about training requirements (clinicians must have social work degree and independent licensure; officers must have CIT training), the Denver model (which used rotating officer assignments to build department-wide awareness), hiring interview panel composition (TPD, Zepf Center, and community member requested), and the need for a pooled vehicle for clinicians. Councilman Hobbes requested data and statistics from Denver. Councilwoman McPherson requested that the interview panel include a community representative.
Multi-District Substation (Community Station) Update
- Presenter: Chief Troy Turnley
- Location: Jackman Road and Sylvania Avenue (western portion of a multi-tenant office building, east of the old Arthur Treacher’s/Family Video site).
- Status: Lease negotiations near completion. Renovations will include a redesigned entryway for community interaction, IT upgrades, and signage. Cost estimates are within budget. A contract has been signed for $500,000 in general fund appropriations.
- Timeline: Goal to open before end of summer 2026, but could slip to fall 2026 or early 2027 due to renovation duration.
- Staffing: The department is re-evaluating staffing (command staff meeting June 18) to address projected officer reductions from retirements and smaller academy classes. The levy failure reduced the ability to assign records officers for report-taking. The station will be used by district officers, community service officers, and as a base for on-duty personnel.
- Council Feedback: Councilman Meldon emphasized bold signage to maximize visibility (even if it requires a variance from the new sign code). Councilwoman McPherson and Councilman Sarantou expressed excitement and urged swift progress to meet community expectations.
TPD Standard Operating Guidelines and Officer Conduct Incidents
- Presenters: Chief Troy Turnley and Chief of Public Safety Brian Crawl (former TPD chief)
- Incident 1: On an unspecified date, a TPD officer used a takedown technique on a 15-year-old female who was handcuffed and walking in the street. The internal affairs investigation has concluded; the chief expects to release the findings and discipline via a press conference in the following week (week of June 8). The case involved multiple interviews with the juvenile, her mother, and officers, plus review of video/audio.
- Incident 2: On an unspecified recent date, officers in an unmarked vehicle in the Sylvan/Detroit Avenue area made derogatory comments to youth, including a statement about “enjoy living in poverty.” One officer was immediately removed from specialty assignments and reassigned. The investigation is nearly complete; all involved officers admitted the conduct and acknowledged it violated policies. Discipline is expected but subject to union grievance/arbitration processes.
- Training and Cultural Competence: The chiefs stated that the second incident is “reprehensible” and not a training failure but a personal moral failure. The department is planning enhanced in-service training for 2027, including courses on child development, adolescent crisis response, cultural competence, and “situational de-escalation” (ICAT training). Council President Williams noted she did not see a youth development module in current training and requested details on the full curriculum. Councilwoman Jones requested cross-referencing data on officers using the Police Next Door program (which allows relocation) and those involved in hostile interactions. Councilwoman McPherson expressed skepticism that training alone can overcome officers’ lifelong biases. Councilwoman Kramer asked about pre-hire psychological screening and whether the vendor (National Testing Network, contracted in June 2024) was performing adequately; Chief Turnley said background checks include neighborhood and employer interviews.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Joyce Singer (Glenwood Park Neighborhood Coalition): Urged that youth and police interaction be taught in schools, with parent involvement. Praised chiefs for taking the incidents seriously.
- Richard Arnold: Questioned the performance of the National Testing Network (the new psychological screening vendor) and requested a performance evaluation compared to the previous local psychologist.
- Harold Harris: Stated that 90% of officers are good, but bad ones spoil trust. Blamed leadership (safety director and chief) for failing to control the 10%. Called for new safety director and new chief.
- Mr. Morris (apparent): Recalled a 2024 incident where an officer told a black woman to “shut up” and referenced Chief Crawl’s defense of free speech. Demanded accountability, not just reassignment. Claimed racism is systemic in law enforcement.
- Georgia Daniel: Described pattern of racist and biased behavior. Called for an independent review of the first incident because the chief is too close to it. Suggested surveying youth about their safety with police.
- Vanessa Lynn: Said training cannot change a person’s heart; officers involved in the second incident should be fired, not suspended.
- John Bibbish: Pressed for a project plan and timeline for the substation, noting that $500,000 in general fund money was appropriated in March and may expire on December 31. Councilwoman McPherson and Councilman Meldon assured him the project is moving forward.
- Michelle Williams (Lincoln School Coalition): Invited police to ride through her neighborhood (Grand Street) and engage with youth. Said the incident near her home involved children living with their uncle.
- Darlene Sweeney Newburn (NAACP President): Stated that the department’s culture, not just training, must be addressed. Called for accountability and transparency. Requested that the review of SOPs be used to evaluate internal culture.
- Rev. John Jones (Hope Toledo): The incident occurred in his neighborhood, which has a rich history. Called officers’ comments intentional and revealing of heart. Said children handled it well, but the system is broken and leadership at all levels must change.
- John Dorn: Lives in the neighborhood and said unmarked vehicles are not for hunting kids; they should be clearly marked for special operations. Urged firing officers, not reassignment. Criticized training officer misconduct.
- Pastor Troy Brown: Said he must tell his 15-year-old daughters they are smart, kind, and beautiful because of skin color. Urged adults to do the right thing for children.
- Don Lynn: Asked if TPD uses the city’s code of conduct in training; requested that question be answered.
- Manita Mongo: Recalled being dismissed at an NAACP meeting when discussing an officer calling a black woman a “wench.” Said resources go around problems, not to fix racism. Encouraged proximity and seeing children as humans.
- Richard Torres: Called it racism and demanded the responsible officers be fired.
- Dr. Hope Bland: Called for an independent reviewer for both incidents because the chief has bias. Stated that the community has the right to call child protective services on law enforcement if they see a child abused.
- Earl Mack (Buffalo Soldiers): Expressed more concern about black-on-black violence than police misconduct, but said he trusts Chief Turnley will handle the officer discipline. Acknowledged the difficulties of dealing with police unions.
Key Outcomes
- Co-Responder Program: The committee received the presentation positively. Councilman Hobbes will submit a referral requesting data from Denver’s program and CIT statistics from TPD. Councilwoman McPherson asked that the hiring panel include a community representative. The launch remains tentative for July 1, 2026, pending federal approval.
- Substation: The lease signing is imminent; renovations will begin soon. Council members encouraged bold signage and a name change from “substation” to “community station.” The project must be completed by year-end to use the appropriated funds.
- Officer Conduct: The chief promised a press conference next week to release findings and discipline for the first incident. The second incident investigation will conclude next week, with discipline to follow. Multiple councilmembers requested additional data: curriculum details, psychological vendor performance, cross-reference of Police Next Door program with complaints, and a youth survey. These will be pursued via referrals and follow-up with administration.
Meeting Transcript
Five present also present councilwoman Dr. Jones. Thank you. We'll first call our criminal justice coordinating council crisis response team update. Thank you for being here. Can you hear me? Okay. My name is Andy Minton. Hi everybody. And I'm Lieutenant Kelly Russell with the crisis intervention team coordinator for the police department. And I am the Behavioral Health Criminal Justice Coordinator at the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. And we are here today to present on our Toledo co-responder program. I apologize to everyone in attendance. I didn't have slides done in time that we could put them on the big screen, but all of you should be able to follow along with the packet in front of you. But we're gonna go pretty surface level. So you should all be able to follow along even though you can't see the slides. So the co-responder has really been developed as a result of community need. So in 2022, Toledo Police Department reported 611 incidents evolving 632 individuals that require the use of force from officers. Also beginning in 2022, Toledo Police Department began collecting data to track of an officer perceived an individual was experiencing suspected mental health issues. So of these 611 incidents evolving 632 individuals that required the use of force from officers, 130 or 21% were suspected to have mental health issues. So this means that more than one of five cases that require the use of force from officers involved an individual with suspected mental health issues. The National Alliance of Mental Illness, what we know as NAMI, has found that people with mental illnesses are over 10 times as likely to experience use of forced interactions with law enforcement than those without mental illness across the country. So this is a mean not just in our community but across the country. So there was a kind of a new opportunity for Lucas County in 2024. In 2024, the Mental Health and Recovery Services Board opened the door for a co-responder unit uh in Lucas County through its levy promises. In their levy endorsement requests to the Toledo Chamber of Commerce, the MHRSB stated that the MHRSB proposed to use a portion of its new levy funds to address behavioral health treatment and support service needs of inmates at the Lucas County Correction Center. That's the jail that's just around the street, and to support the development of a law enforcement behavioral health co-responder program. So with this promise, we finally had the momentum we needed to move forward with a co-responder program. So that's kind of where the CJCC where I work got involved through the Connect and Protect grant, which is on the next slide. So after reviewing the MHRSB's request, I reached out to the executive director of the MHRSB and asked, you know, where is this project now? Who have you worked with? Where is it at? How can the CJCC get involved in order to actually establish a co-responder program? This was one of my long-term goals as the BHCJ coordinator because we know that law enforcement is uh the resource in our community that is used to respond to crisis situations, but we also know that law enforcement is responding to situations that they are not trained to respond to. It's better to have a mental health clinician respond to an incident that revolt that involves mental health issues. Um I had identified the Connect and Protect grant opportunity through the Bureau of Justice Assistance as a funding source that we could utilize to actually establish a co-responder unit. So after receiving permission from the mental health board, I reached out to TPD through Kelly and the Zeph Center through Courtney Borough, and we really got to work saying that this was something we actually wanted to establish. So then I put together the grant application and we were eventually awarded funding in October of 2024. So that's kind of how we got here. But I've been saying co-responder unit a lot, and I'm not sure if everyone actually knows what that means. So the actual definition that the mental health board got from the Colorado Behavioral Health Association defines a co-responder program as a program that pairs law enforcement officers with behavioral health professionals to respond to behavioral health-related calls for police service. The teams utilize their combined experience to de-escalate situations and help link individuals with behavioral health services. So the good thing about a co-responder program is when you have an officer responding to a scene, you also have a corresponder with them that are arriving at the same time. So they're dispatched simultaneously, they arrive at the scene together, and they're able to uh they have different options available to them by having a corresponder there because clinicians are more aware of community resources and are better able to de-escalate crisis situations. So on our next slide, why a corresponder unit. I have de-escalation, diversion from the criminal legal system, and connection to appropriate behavioral health services. So the first one, de-escalation. When officers are arriving to these situations involving individuals with behavioral health needs, individuals with behavioral health needs might not always be able to comply with officers' orders because they might not always understand them. They might be in the midst of a behavioral health crisis where they're kind of have symptoms that officers might misinterpret as not following their directions or as acting out or posing a threat. Whereas clinicians understand different symptoms and different actions and behaviors and are trained to actually de-escalate situations by building trust with the individual they're working with and responding to the crisis that is at hand, which is often not a threat to public safety.
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