I agree completely.
I'm not overly familiar with the ARCC program, but I used to work on a crisis team in Simcoe County. In the crisis house I worked in, I would be deployed to situations usually without, but sometimes with, police. I can say with certainty that when police were deployed with me, almost always a situation that did not need to be escalated was escalated. We can train specialists to attend frontline situations in a crisis emergency. If it's deemed unsafe, then perhaps police could be in a nearby vicinity.
Again, Michelle and I have worked on the front line for 15 years. I recall maybe three times when I had to have police come in with me to a situation. I remember this one time being in an apartment building and the officer saying to me, “I can't believe you go into these houses alone. We wouldn't even go in alone as officers. We would go in in twos.” Yet, in 15 years—not to say it doesn't happen—I've never been harmed. I've never been in a situation that I couldn't de-escalate myself.
I did mention police. I think the primary first response would be if we could train people to go into frontline situations in which there's a mental health crisis. If there were safety issues, then police would be somewhere in the background. I also think that if we're going to continue to send police in, then we need much better mental health training for police.