PHARR — U.S. Sen. John Cornyn visited the Pharr ONE Northside Center Thursday for a roundtable discussion with local law enforcement, mental health providers and city officials.
Cornyn was in town to discuss the Justice and Mental Health Reauthorization Act, which will reauthorize expiring grant programs for mental health courts, crisis intervention teams, and other initiatives that help law enforcement assist individuals with mental illness, such as the Pharr Mental Health Unit.
Following the roundtable discussion, which was not open to local media, Cornyn toured the Pharr ONE Northside Center before hosting a news conference in which he praised the Pharr Police Department’s mental health unit.
“It’s great to be back in Pharr and really to celebrate the initiative and the great work that is happening right here in a relatively small city where we know that resources are not ordinarily available to do the sort of innovative things that are happening here today,” Cornyn said.
The Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Reauthorization Act, which was introduced by Cornyn, will increase funding authorization from $50 million per year to $60 million per year. The bill passed the U.S. Senate with unanimous support on June 23. It is currently awaiting action in the House.
“One of the things that we were able to do was introduce a bill called the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Reauthorization Act, recognizing the law enforcement encounters people that are undergoing a mental health challenge,” Cornyn said. “Frankly, unless they are trained to de-escalate that confrontation, sometimes it can be a danger to the officer, but also to the individual who made the call to 911.”
“It’s great to see the innovation taking place here,” the senator added.
Cornyn said that the goal of his bill is to help ease the strain on law enforcement officers who may find themselves in mental health situations for which they have no training.
Pharr PD’s mental health unit was established in December 2020 in collaboration with Tropical Texas Behavioral Health just months after Andy Harvey began his tenure as chief of police.
“The roundtable was very informative, and it’s good to hear perspectives from the federal government,” Harvey said after Thursday’s event. “In this case, Sen. Cornyn was talking to us about what they see and what they’re talking about in Washington because we need their help. We can’t do this alone. We need help from the federal government, the state government, our local government, and we also need help collaborating with other agencies like Tropical and the District Attorney’s Office. The reality is that it takes money. It’s not free.”
Harvey said that the roundtable was an opportunity to highlight his department’s success with the mental health unit, as well as emphasizing its importance so that it can not only continue in its current capacity but grow and improve.
“We’ve come to this point, and now it’s about continuing to offer a higher level of service, but we can’t do it alone as a police agency,” Harvey said. “We must work with our other partners and agencies here. That’s the way that we impact not only our city but our region.”
Tropical Texas Behavioral Health CEO Terry Crocker, who participated in the roundtable meeting, said that Cornyn’s visit was a good sign for future funding.
“Anytime we get attention from elected officials, especially at the federal level, it increases our chances of pulling those federal dollars down here to do more different things and expand the things that we’re already doing very well,” Crocker said. “To have the senator’s support is paramount.”
