Bridging Community Health and Public Safety

Bridging Community Health and Public Safety: Deflection, Situation Tables, and Cross-Sector Collaboration

This session highlights practical ways communities are bridging the gap between public safety and public health. Retired Police Chief Scott Allen will facilitate a conversation with three innovators who have built durable partnerships across law enforcement, behavioral health, and community organizations. Together they'll unpack field-tested approaches—deflection academies, situation tables, family-focused engagement, and rural coalition building—that reduce harm, accelerate access to services, and improve community well-being. Participants will leave with a clear roadmap for launching or strengthening collaborative initiatives in their own jurisdictions.

Learning Objectives

• Participants will be able to explain how deflection and situation table models operationalize cross-sector collaboration to address acutely elevated risk and connect people to care earlier.
• Participants will be able to identify implementation steps (training, data/privacy practices, facilitation, and sustainability) to launch or scale collaborative law enforcement–public health initiatives.
• Participants will be able to describe measurable community impacts from real implementations (CT, VT) and adapt these lessons to local context.

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