Law Enforcement Training for Mental Health Crisis Response Act of 2025
This bill would amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to create a new federal grant program that funds behavioral health crisis response training for law enforcement officers and corrections officers. The Department of Justice’s Attorney General would issue grants to state, local, and Tribal law enforcement and corrections agencies to cover the cost of training and related travel and lodging. Training providers would have to meet program standards developed by the Attorney General, and the training is designed to equip officers with crisis-intervention, de-escalation, and skills for safely handling incidents involving mental illness, substance use, or persons in crisis. Grants must supplement rather than supplant existing funding, include a 3% cap on administrative costs, and require annual reporting and recordkeeping. The overall aim is to reduce injuries and fatalities on both sides during behavioral health crisis responses and to improve public safety outcomes.
Key Points
- 1Establishes a Law Enforcement Training for Mental Health Crisis Grant Program to fund training for law enforcement and corrections officers, including related travel and lodging costs.
- 2Provides up to $10 million per fiscal year reserved to fund this program, with future funding authorized subject to appropriations.
- 3Requires the Attorney General to publish qualification standards for training providers and to ensure training is developed with healthcare professionals and people with lived experience of mental illness.
- 4Requires applicants to submit detailed information (agency size, past incidents, current training status) and allows optional information about incidents where training could have helped, plus estimated per-officer training costs.
- 5Imposes safeguards: grants must supplement existing funds (not replace them), limits admin costs to 3%, and obligates annual reporting and recordkeeping for audits and program evaluation.