Roanoke County’s Chief of Police Howard Hall and Assistant Chief of Police Jimmy Chapman were recently inducted into the Evidence-Based Policing Hall of Fame at the George Mason University’s Center for Evidence Based Crime Policy.
Both were recognized during Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting at 3:00 p.m. at the Roanoke County Administration Center.
The Hall of Fame recognizes innovative law enforcement practitioners who have been central to the implementation of a high quality research program in their agency and also are relentless champions of institutionalizing evidence-based practices. These leaders of evidence-based policing help advance significant reforms in policing by utilizing science in their decision making.
Chief Hall and Assistant Chief Chapman were nominated by professors of George Mason University for their efforts in supporting a major research initiative under the Smart Policing Initiative (now Strategies for Policing Innovation) to evaluate a program to improve police response to community members experiencing a mental health crisis. This new approach aimed to address a particularly underserved population—those who have called the police because they are in crisis but do not meet the criteria to be taken into emergency custody.
Chief Hall and Assistant Chief Chapman were instrumental in leading the development of a response protocol in collaboration with a 24-hour mobile crisis response team in which a mental health professional would take over crisis calls once officers stabilized the situation. The experiment tests whether the model effectively provides services to community members in terms of crisis mitigation, use of force reductions, and workload efficiency. Results of the study will be distributed in March 2020.
Chief Hall and Assistant Chief Chapman have joined a group of approximately 40 other law enforcement officials who have been honored with this award over the past 10 years.
