Naperville residents calling 911 during a mental health emergency will now get a different kind of response: officers paired with clinicians and a specially trained dog.

The Naperville Police Department's new Mobile Crisis Intervention Team, or MCIT, began full-time operations this summer. The unit responds to mental health calls, family violence incidents and missing persons cases across all Naperville neighborhoods, the Chicago Tribune first reported Aug. 21. The Naperville City Council approved funding in December 2025 as part of the 2026 city budget.

The department fields about 1,000 mental health-related calls each year. Each call takes an average of two hours to resolve. Police Chief Jason Arres said the goal is for the MCIT to become the primary responder on 50% to 60% of those calls during its operating hours, Monday through Friday.

The unit includes one sergeant, five officers, four clinicians and one crisis intervention K-9 named Chance. On a typical call, two officers and one clinician respond together.

That pairing is the point. Rather than a patrol officer handling a crisis alone and moving on to the next call, the MCIT stays with the person and follows up for months. Arres called the approach "a great collaborative" model for helping people in crisis, speaking at a media event at the Naperville police station on Thursday, Aug. 20.

The department had run a smaller, hybrid version of crisis intervention since 2021. The full-time team formalizes that work and frees patrol officers to return to their beats. More than 90% of the department has crisis intervention training, according to the Tribune, but dedicated staff means faster, more sustained help.

Officer Justin Cunat, a seven-year department veteran now assigned to the MCIT, described the difference at the Aug. 20 event. On patrol, he said, officers jump from call to call and hand cases off to social workers. On the MCIT, he can stay with someone for six or seven months if needed.

Chance, handled by Officer Kevin Merrihew, is what Arres called the only crisis intervention response team K-9 in Illinois. The dog is trained to be present on active calls. Studies show crisis intervention K-9s have helped child and adult sexual assault victims disclose traumatic experiences, according to the Tribune's reporting.

The team has already logged an early result. About a week and a half before the Aug. 20 event, the MCIT responded to a family that had filed a judicial petition for a loved one to receive a mental health evaluation. Sgt. Jonathan Pope, the unit's sergeant, told the Tribune the team spent significant time with the individual and ultimately convinced the person to voluntarily go to the hospital.

"When I hear 'voluntarily walk to the ambulance,' it's like soothing music to a chief's ears that it was voluntary because those moments can become violent for our people and the person in crisis," Arres told the Tribune in its Aug. 21 report.

Police Counselor Eirene Boulougouris said the MCIT is partnering with mental health providers and social service groups across Naperville to expand its reach, according to NCTV17. The department modeled the unit on other agencies, including the Crisis Action Team in Overland Park, Kansas. Boulougouris said the only comparable unit in Illinois is in Elgin.

Pope said the team is scheduled for a week of specialty training in November. The MCIT plans to measure its performance through call volume, recidivism rates and other data points, though team members described the metrics approach as a work in progress.