Treating police officer mental wellness programs and community partner programs focused on behavioral health crises as separate priorities has not served smaller law enforcement departments nor their communities. This siloed approach leads law enforcement executives with limited resources to think they must choose between the two. In fact, there are ways to combine efforts that lead to improved officer health and community safety.

With increasing focus on wellness and the role of police regarding community safety across the United States, law enforcement agencies cannot afford to imagine solutions to these challenges without designing programs that meet the needs of smaller departments. A 2016 review of federal data sources found that close to 50 percent of all local U.S. police departments have 10 or fewer officers and about another 27 percent of departments had between 10 and 24 officers. This same study identified that 71 percent of departments serve a community of 10,000 or fewer residents.