About a year ago the Wellesley Police Department embarked on the One Mind Campaign, a program designed to ensure successful interactions between police officers and citizens affected by mental illness. The One Mind Campaign was spearheaded by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the organization that former Wellesley police chief Terrence Cunningham now works for.
Under the One Mind program, the Wellesley Police Department, now led by Chief Pilecki, pledged to do the following: partner with one or more community mental health organizations; develop/implement a policy for police response to persons affected by mental illness; train and certify all Wellesley Police Department officers in mental health first aid; and Provide Crisis Intervention Team training to a minimum of 20% of sworn officers.

We checked in with Sgt. Brian Spencer of the WPD to ask about the benchmarks and to find out in general how the One Mind program is working in practice on uniting the Wellesley community, public safety organizations, and mental health organizations so that the three become “of one mind.”
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