Members of the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office, Mental Health Association of Essex and Morris Counties, Morris County Sheriff’s Office, and Chiefs of Police in Morris County announce the roll-out of the countywide expansion
Morris County Prosecutor Robert J. Carroll, First Assistant Prosecutor Maggie Calderwood, Chief of Detectives Robert McNally, and Mental Health Association (MHA) Chief Executive Officer Bob Davison announce Morris County’s ARRIVE Together program has expanded to twenty-five additional municipalities, effectively incorporating nearly all of Morris County into the program.
Joining ARRIVE Together – Morris County as of this month are the Town of Boonton, Boonton Township, Butler, Chatham Borough, Chatham Township, Chester, Dover, East Hanover, Florham Park, Harding Township, Jefferson, Kinnelon, Lincoln Park, Long Hill Township, Mendham Borough, Mendham Township, Mount Arlington, Mountain Lakes, Netcong, Pequannock, Riverdale, Rockaway Borough, Rockaway Township, Washington Township, and Wharton. Mount Olive Township provides similar services through a separate Federal Protect and Connect Grant.
This is the fourth rollout for the program operating in Morris County. Denville, Hanover, Madison, Montville, Morris Plains, Morris Township, Morristown, Parsippany-Troy Hills, Randolph and Roxbury participated in pilots, first launched in November 2023.
Partnering with the Mental Health Association of Essex and Morris Counties (MHA), the ARRIVE Together program (Alternative Responses to Reduce Instances of Violence & Escalation) seeks to help police de-escalate situations, provide immediate and follow-up support to individuals in crisis, and ensure the safety of both the community and the responding officers.
Morris County’s program consists of both close in time response and follow-up response. What this means is – when a report of a juvenile or adult person in crisis is received by a municipal police department, law enforcement will respond, and mental health providers will arrive at the same time or shortly after. Once law enforcement deems the scene safe, the mental health clinician from MHA will speak to the person in crisis or family member to help divert them to appropriate services. Thereafter, MHA will conduct follow-up with that individual, as well as any other parties involved in the situation, such as family members, to connect them to a range of supportive services. This can include not only behavioral and mental health access, but also substance use treatment, housing assistance, grief counseling, and related issues. MHA Clinicians have assisted law enforcement in a variety of different situations, including de-escalation of suicidal individuals, working with families dealing with children resistant to or refusing to go to school, providing support during death notifications, domestic violence incidents and criminal investigations, and connecting individuals to 211 during Code Blue.
In addition to the ARRIVE Together program, the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office has also partnered with MHA to implement the ARRIVE Critical Incident Model. In accordance with the Attorney General Law Enforcement Directive 2024-04, the ARRIVE Critical Incident Model ensures that a mental health professional is available to respond 24/7, 365 days a year to incidents involving barricaded individuals who appear to be in need of medical or mental health intervention.
MHA Clinicians’ assistance allow for law enforcement to focus more directly on the investigation and prosecution of criminal offenses, as it frees officers from certain tasks relating to mental health calls that can be better handled by mental health professionals. This helps meet the goal of ARRIVE Together in increasing connections to mental health services while reducing arrests and use of force injuries to civilians and officers, and improving trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.
The ARRIVE Together initiative is funded through a State budget appropriation. Facilitated by the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General (OAG), the program is overseen by the Office of Alternative and Community Responses (OACR). Recognizing the benefits of having access to resources to address the complexities of responding to situations involving substance use and mental health emergencies, Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin established OACR to help ensure that public health-centered resources and programs are available to law enforcement and their partners in public safety.
“ARRIVE Together partnerships have made New Jersey a national model for changing the way we respond when law enforcement intersects with behavioral health emergencies. Currently, more than 71% of New Jersey’s 9.5 million residents have access to ARRIVE programs and there have been more than 10,000 successful ARRIVE interactions,” said Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin. “Our Office of Alternative Community Responses is working tirelessly to continue to expand these critical services, and today we congratulate Morris County for their significant expansion.”
“The countywide expansion of ARRIVE shows Morris County’s commitment to increasing access to the benefits law enforcement and residents are already seeing from the program,” said Tiffany Wilson, Director of the Office of Alternative and Community Responses. “OACR is proud to help them continue to grow.”
According to the OAG’s ARRIVE Together Data Dashboard, as of June 25, 2025, Morris County has had a total of 1,226 ARRIVE Together interactions.
Members of ARRIVE Together have been active in engaging in community outreach throughout Morris County, introducing the program and sharing its positive impact on law enforcement and the public, and are available to meet with community groups, schools and organizations to talk about the program and its benefits to Morris County residents.
Prosecutor Carroll said, “Morris County law enforcement recognizes the importance of ensuring the safety of every person involved in a civilian-officer interaction. By partnering with the Mental Health Association of Essex and Morris Counties, our officers can connect those they encounter experiencing a behavioral health crisis with the best possible remedial alternatives. How law enforcement responds to mental health emergencies is evolving. ARRIVE Together, alongside Crisis Intervention Training and the MCPO’s Mental Health and Veteran’s Diversion Program, strives to ensure the best possible treatment and outcomes for individuals with mental illness who become involved with the criminal justice system.”
