NJ Attorney General Announces New Office to Develop Community-Based Mental Health Crisis Responses

Union County Assistant Prosecutor Tiffany Wilson to Head New Office and Lead Expansion of Innovative ARRIVE Together Program.

New Jersey's Attorney General, Matthew J. Platkin, announced the creation of a new senior-level position focused on developing community-oriented, non-law enforcement responses to mental health emergencies. In addition to this, the appointed officer will spearhead the statewide rollout of the Attorney General's ARRIVE Together program, which is designed to reduce instances of violence and escalation.

Assistant Prosecutor Tiffany Wilson from Union County Prosecutor’s Office will join the Attorney General’s leadership team in this new role. As the first director of the Attorney General’s new Office of Alternative and Community Responses, Wilson will work directly with law enforcement, community stakeholders, and mental health professionals to devise alternative crisis response models that do not rely on law enforcement.

"For far too long, police across the nation have been called upon to be a cure-all, to solve various societal problems and assume roles well beyond that of law enforcement, sometimes without proper training or adequate resources,” said Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin. “It is unfair to ask so much of our officers, and it also fails to acknowledge the needs of the communities we serve."

The Union County Prosecutor’s Office, which was the second county to pilot the ARRIVE program, expressed pride in sharing Wilson with the Attorney General’s team. The ARRIVE program was first launched jointly by the Elizabeth and Linden Police Departments in June 2022.

The expansion of the ARRIVE program will increase the number of participating law enforcement agencies to over 40 municipalities across nine counties. Each county may have a slightly different implementation model, but most jurisdictions deploy mental health professionals along with plainclothes officers in unmarked police vehicles to respond to 9-1-1 calls related to mental or behavioral health emergencies.

The ARRIVE program has shown promising results during its pilot phase. Teams in Cumberland and Union counties have made over 400 contacts with residents suffering from mental health disorders or co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders over the past year. There have been no injuries or arrests in response to the ARRIVE team's interventions.

In February, Governor Murphy proposed a $10 million budget allocation for the 2024 fiscal year to expand the ARRIVE program throughout the state, making it the country's first statewide law enforcement and mental health alternative response program. The Office of the Attorney General has acknowledged and appreciated the support this program has received from Governor Murphy and the Legislature.

Assistant Prosecutor Wilson, who has served in Union County's Prosecutor's office since 1998, currently oversees all of the county’s diversionary programs. These offer alternate approaches to traditional criminal justice solutions and incarceration, including the Mental Health Jail Diversion, Recovery Court, Veterans Diversion, and Pre-Trial Intervention Programs. Wilson has over a decade of experience working with cases involving individuals with mental health challenges.