Giving Compass' Take:

• An Arizona Daily Star report details a partnership between local police in Tuscon and the National Alliance on Mental Illness-Southern Arizona to train officers on dealing with mentally ill people with compassion rather than force.

• Could this be a model to reduce police violence across the country? How can we make sure nonviolent people with mental health issues get the care they need rather than face incarceration?

• Technology may have a role to play, too. Read about the mental health help app for homeless people in distress.

Two out of five calls to law enforcement in Tucson, Az., in some way involve a mental health crisis or substance abuse disorder — that’s more calls than about burglaries or stolen cars. In the not-too-distant past, nearly every one of those cases would have ended up with someone going to jail or in tragedy. But for nearly two decades now, the National Alliance on Mental Illness-Southern Arizona has worked with local law enforcement to ensure people faced with mental health or substance abuse problems get the compassion they need and to help keep nonviolent individuals out of jail.

It’s a partnership built on years of trust that started with the introduction of crisis intervention training to Tucson in early 2000 after a string of five cases of “suicide by cop” in a span of just 10 months. The 40-hour course first conceived and field tested in Memphis, Tennessee, gives local officers the tools to recognize signs of mental illness in individuals they encounter and to respond appropriately

Read the full article about the law enforcement and mental health partnership in Arizona by Jason Winsky and H. Clarke Romans (special to the Arizona Daily Star) at tucson.com.