INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indianapolis police officials on Friday said they don’t plan to expand the availability of the Mobile Crisis Assistance Team.

Maj. Tabatha McLemore of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department‘s Operations Support Bureau said the number of calls to the Mobile Crisis Assistance Team — known on the force as MCAT — continues to rise steadily, with more than 2,700 in 2024. She said this total suggests people are more willing to seek help when they or a loved one are experiencing a mental health crisis.

“I feel like that stigma is going away and people are more openly talking about it, getting it up there and realizing that it’s not something to be embarrassed by,” she said. “It’s just something that you work through and you get the help that you need.”

The MCAT has seven teams, each consisting of one IMPD officer and one clinician from Eskenazi Health. Two teams are assigned to IMPD’s Northwest District and the other districts get one team each. The MCAT operates from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays. Community advocates have repeatedly criticized those limited hours.

Following the death of Herman Whitfield in 2022, who died when IMPD officers tased him while he was experiencing a mental health crisis, Richard Reynolds, pastor of New Revelation Church, said of the MCAT, “It’s something but it’s still woefully inadequate.”

McLemore said the MCAT’s capabilities are limited by the number of clinicians Eskenazi can hire and then assign to the program. She said Eskenazi faces the same hiring challenges IMPD does. Unless Eskenazi can hire more clinicians, she said the MCAT can’t expand its hours. Although all IMPD officers now receive ongoing mental health response training every year, McLemore said Eskenazi’s clinicians have expertise police officers lack.

“Without our clinicians through Eskenazi, MCAT doesn’t work,” she said. “We need that clinician there with us side by side.”

Eskenazi officials told News 8 they don’t have any MCAT openings but continue to work with IMPD on its mental health crisis response.

McLemore said the MCAT focuses on helping people work through their immediate crisis and then connecting them with follow-up resources. She said arrests by the unit are rare. Out of all of the MCAT calls this year, she said she was only aware of 16 arrests. In addition to mental health crises, she said the MCAT assists people who have witnessed violent crimes.

Going into 2025, McLemore said the unit’s primary goal is helping people understand how it can help and that the unit is doing what it can with the resources it has.

In addition to the MCAT, the Indianapolis Office of Public Health & Safety has a Clinician-Led Community Response team, which handles nonviolent mental health calls. That team is available 24/7 but only in IMPD’s Downtown and East districts and at the St. George Apartments, though it will expand to the North District early next year, as News 8 reported earlier in December.

McLemore said 911 dispatchers are trained to ask a series of specific questions for mental health calls that help them determine which team to send.

McLemore said she encourages anyone in a nonviolent crisis situation to call the 988 national crisis line, which connects callers with mental health professionals who then help them work through their crisis.

Mental health resources

• Be Well Indiana
• Indiana Suicide Prevention
• Indiana Department of Child Services’ Children’s Mental Health Initiative
• National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: 988 or 800-273-8255
• More resources