Editorial: Fox Valley's Mental Health Crisis Calls Deserve a Better Response

When a Geneva family called 911 in April because their adult son was experiencing a psychotic episode, two squad cars arrived within minutes. A crisis counselor arrived 90 minutes later. By then, the situation had escalated, the son was in handcuffs, and what should have been a behavioral health intervention became a trip to the county jail. This story, told to the Tribune Editorial Board by the family on condition of anonymity, is not unusual in Kane County. It is, in fact, the norm.

Kane County's 911 dispatch center handled more than 4,200 calls last year that dispatchers flagged as involving a mental health component — a number that has risen 35 percent since 2021, according to county data obtained by the Tribune. Yet the county's co-responder program, which pairs a licensed clinician with a police officer, operates only Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Evenings, weekends, and holidays — precisely when crises tend to peak — are covered by officers alone.