BET+ developing scripted drama about the LAPD Psychiatric Evaluation Unit by Devon Shepard, Lina Patel and Nasel Co.

Exclusive: BET+ on the Los Angeles Police Department’s Psychiatric Evaluation Unit by Devon Sheppard (Good times, big) playwright Lina Patel (Save the day, Krypton) and Nacelle Company.

Created by Sheppard and Patel, the as-yet-untitled project is about the LAPD’s psychiatric evaluation unit, which has a therapist ride with an LAPD officer to answer mental health calls.

Logline: After an officer-involved shooting of a mentally ill man, two women – a skeptical police officer and an idealistic doctor – are forced to work together on a razor’s edge where law enforcement meets mental health and the risks in and on the home. Job is life and death.

The LAPD’s MEU (Mental Evaluation Unit) has existed to assist patrol officers on mental health-related calls for more than four decades. According to the LAPD, the program uses a multi-tiered approach that includes triage by trained dispatchers, a 24-hour triage line, co-response teams, follow-up case managers and focused community engagement; mental health officers embedded in police agencies, comprehensive data collection and data sharing mechanisms; A training strategy that includes 40-hour mental health intervention training and a mental health crisis response program advisory board to engage community partners.

Shepard and Patel serve as producers on the project. Sheppard executive produces with Nessel Company’s Brian Volk-Weiss, Matt Ochter and Michael Pelmont. Patel and LAPD Captain Brian Bixler serve as co-executive producers.