The purpose of the southeastern pennsylvania transit authority (SEPTA) cops office safer outcomes support is to enhance and sustain access to high quality DE-escalation and crisis response training…

The Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services awarded $488,629 to the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority on October 1, 2025, under the Public Safety Partnership and Community Policing Grants program (CFDA 16.710) to enhance de-escalation and crisis response training for all 238 sworn SEPTA law enforcement officers through September 30, 2027.

The Lincoln Center for Family and Youth delivers state POST-certified training that includes follow-up assessment and scenario-based exercises. The project addresses documented operational need: mental health referrals among SEPTA officers rose 96 percent between 2023 and 2024, and 155 use-of-force incidents occurred from October 2024 through March 2025. The award funds three interconnected objectives: enhance officers' knowledge in community-oriented policing, de-escalation, and behavioral health crisis response; develop internal training capacity through a train-the-trainer cohort; and increase officers' practice in these areas. Place of performance is Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The purpose of the southeastern pennsylvania transit authority (SEPTA) cops office safer outcomes support is to enhance and sustain access to high quality DE-escalation and crisis response training for all 238 sworn SEPTA law enforcement officers. Between 2023-2024, mental health referrals rose 96%, and from october-march 2025, 155 use-of-force incidents occurred, underscoring the need for the proposed training. The project also addresses the three safer outcomes priority considerations: (1) the curriculum is state post certified, (2) the training includes follow-up assessment, and (3) officers take part in scenario-based exercises. The project is driven by three goals. (1) enhance officers' knowledge in community-oriented policing, DE-escalation, and behavioral health crisis response; (2) develop internal training capacity in community-oriented policing, DE-escalation, and behavioral health crisis response through a cohort of train-the-trainer (TTT) officers; and (3) increase officers' practice in community-oriented policing, DE-escalation, and behavioral health crisis response. The lincoln center for family and youth (TLC) will provide the training. They are a respected and experienced provider in the area.