FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Updated November 21, 2024
Red Tape Hampers Community-Led Emergency Response Units
On Tuesday, November 19, the New Jersey Violence Intervention and Prevention Statewide Coalition hosted an online forum to address persistent challenges to implementing the groundbreaking Seabrooks-Washington legislation empowering community-led first responders and signed into law by Governor Phil Murphy in January.
The law calls for piloting Community Crisis Response Teams (CCRTs) in 6-counties, earmarking $12-million to build out the pilots.
The forum - “Transforming Crisis Response: Opportunities and Challenges in New Jersey” – looked at the history of tragic outcomes resulting from inadequate crisis intervention and examined the challenges in funding, coordination, and overall implementation of Seabrooks-Washington.
"The allocation of funds and the implementation of the Seabrooks-Washington law have faced significant challenges, hindering the full activation of these critical, life-saving programs," said Will Simpson of Equal Justice USA, a spokesperson for the NJVIP Coalition. "In partnership with communities across the state our coalition dedicated tremendous effort to getting this law passed and we remain committed to ensuring its successful implementation."
The Seabrooks Washington law was named after Najee Seabrooks and Andrew Washington, two young Black men who were each killed by police officers while each were enduring a mental health crisis, Seabrooks in March 2023 and Washington in August of 2023.Their cases prompted protests in Paterson and Jersey City and raised questions about how police handle or mishandle such calls.
Najee Seabrooks was a community-based violence interventionist for the Paterson Healing Collective, who called some of his colleagues to the scene to help him. Police on the scene did not allow them to do so and ultimately killed Seabrooks.
Andrew Washington had a history of mental health challenges, and during his crisis family members called the Jersey City Medical Center, where he had history, specifically not seeking the police. However, the medical center shifted the call to police who sent a swat team that ultimately killed Washington. Not only did Washington have history with the Medical Center, money was earmarked for the medical center by the city to build greater capacity to meet such challenges, but never happened.
“The State of New Jersey must recognize the need for adjusting and modifying how these resources are allocated and how the services are ultimately coordinated,” said Zayid Muhammad of NJ Communities for Accountable Policing. “What we cannot have happen is for a paper façade of truly addressing a problem and a behind closed doors bureaucratic indifference that does not give these critically needed programs a real chance to properly function.”
The New Jersey Violence Intervention and Prevention Statewide Coalition is a network of community-based violence prevention and intervention programs, as well as hospital-based violence intervention programs, throughout the state. NJ Communities for Accountable Policing is an outgrowth of Newark Communities for Accountable Policing. The organizations worked together to get Seabrooks-Washington signed into law and they vow to continue working together to ensure the law’s implementation.