HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 3172        FILED ON: 1/16/2015

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 2137

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PRESENTED BY:

Paul R. Heroux

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To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act to establish a pilot grant program using ‘Emotional CPR’ to decrease hostilities between police and citizens.

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PETITION OF:

HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 3172        FILED ON: 1/16/2015

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 2137

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the One Hundred and Eighty-Ninth General Court
(2015-2016)

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An Act to establish a pilot grant program using ‘Emotional CPR’ to decrease hostilities between police and citizens.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

Emotional CPR is a program designed to reduce the traumatic consequences of interactions between police and vulnerable individuals, leading to a reduction in injury to both officers and the community members. Given the current national focus on aggressive interactions between police officers and possible offenders, Emotional CPR training is a timely preventative technique to help minimize the occurrence of such unnecessary and unfortunate encounters. Participants have shared later that the training helps them to communicate with greater emotional understanding in all realms of their life, in addition to assisting persons in acute distress. This training is for prevention and is a public health education approach, because it can be used to help anyone, regardless of whether they have a diagnosable mental health condition.

Section one: The Executive Office of Public Safety (EOPSS) shall create a pilot program to administer grants to municipal police departments to train police officers to connect with any member of the community in acute emotional distress in a non-threatening and supportive manner.

Section two: Grant award winners shall be provided with funds to train 16 participants with 2 trainers over a 14-hour period. The training is very practical and teaches the skills of connecting, empowering, and revitalizing mostly through role-plays with feedback and dialogue.

Section three: Criteria for an evaluation of the pilot program will take place pre-and post training in order to (1) track the efficacy of the training materials, (2) to measure subsequent usage of the material in the workplace. The University of Massachusetts Medical School in collaboration with EOPSS will support the development and distribution of this research along with NEC staff.

Section four: The results of the pilot program shall be provided to the Legislature and EOPSS and made available to the public.