Arkansas Code Title 20. Public Health and Welfare § 20-47-802. Legislative intent

(a) It is the intent of the General Assembly to create an established protocol for crisis intervention by law enforcement agencies and jail personnel, the court system, hospitals, healthcare providers, and mental health professionals to address the methods and procedures to be used by law enforcement agencies and jail personnel, the court system, hospitals, healthcare providers, and mental health professionals in engaging with an individual who demonstrates substantial likelihood of committing bodily harm against himself or herself, or against another person, and who is an individual with a behavioral health impairment, mental disability, mental illness, or other permanent or temporary behavioral health or mental impairment.

(b) Further, it is the intent of the General Assembly that the behavioral health crisis intervention protocol created under this subchapter and established to address engagement with a member of the public who is an individual with a behavioral health impairment results not in prosecution or incarceration but in treatment of the individual in a voluntary clinical setting until his or her behavioral health impairment is managed to the point that the individual is substantially less likely to commit a criminal or otherwise dangerous act.