By Andrew Hay

Unarmed emergency responders Nevada Sanchez and Sean Martin take a police dispatch call in southeast Albuquerque, New Mexico, a city with high rates of violent crime and police shootings.

They have no enforcement powers or protective equipment and say they use their voices and brains to deescalate encounters with people in mental health and substance abuse crises.

On some occasions they may have saved lives.

…

Albuquerque, with the second highest rate of police killings among U.S. cities over 250,000 people, according to Mapping Police Violence, has set up one of the country’s most ambitious civilian responder programs to offer help rather than law enforcement to people in crisis.

Such initiatives have spread like “wildfire” across the United States since the 2020 murder of George Floyd highlighted police killings of people of color and those suffering from mental illness or substance abuse, said Alex Vitale, professor of sociology at Brooklyn College.

  • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
    1886·
    9 months ago

    I like how the answer isn’t “let’s make sure the people with guns are sensible and humane in spicy situations which involve unstable individuals”

    Instead it is “let’s send unarmed people into potentially violent situations what’s the worst that could happen”

    • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
      611·
      9 months ago

      This is a good thing. You can always call in the police if things get violent. But, police are trained to use their guns in almost any situation, which isn’t what we want when someone is in a mental health crisis. You want someone trained to help them deal with their crisis and come out the other side of it.

      I could pull up half a dozen articles right now of police officers shooting people in mental health crisis situations who just wanted help. That’s not what we want.

        • notabot@lemm.ee
          222·
          9 months ago

          This is one of the things I really like about Lemmy; people having thoughtful discussions and changing their point of view with the evidence. So, kudos to you!

          • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
            132·
            9 months ago

            Thank you – yeah, it is frustrating because it’s at odds with my usual overall world view, but I’m not gonna sit here arguing against “we tried it in the real world and it definitely works better” which seems like the reality in this case.

            Edit: Okay, update – I just didn’t read some important parts of the article. The ACS people work in conjunction with the police when there are weapons or other dangerous elements involved. The police like it because it frees up resources and they don’t have to go into situations they’re not well trained for, the community likes it because the ACS people deal with mental health crises better than the police, everybody wins.

        • SineIraEtStudio
          9·
          9 months ago

          Relevant Section, with example implementation:

          With an annual budget of roughly $2 million, the program saves Eugene $14 million annually in ambulance trips and emergency room costs, plus an estimated $8.5 million in public safety costs—and has successfully diverted thousands from the criminal legal system. Of the estimated 17,700 calls CAHOOTS responded to in 2019, teams requested police backup only 311 times.

          311/17700=~1.75%

          Article Text Below:

          What Happens When We Send Mental Health Providers Instead Of Police

          For Daniel Prude, Patrick Warren Sr., and Ricardo Muñoz, 911 calls led to tragedy. They are three of at least 97 people killed just last year after police responded to reports of someone “behaving erratically or having a mental health crisis.”

          Like Prude, Warren Sr., and Muñoz, nearly a quarter of the more than 6,000 people fatally shot by police since 2015 were experiencing a mental health crisis. Today, a person having a mental health crisis is more likely to encounter law enforcement than they are to get any medical support or treatment, making jails the largest behavioral health facilities in the country. Chicago’s Cook County Jail, the Los Angeles County Jail, and New York’s Rikers Island jail complex each hold more people with serious mental health conditions than any dedicated treatment facility in the country.

          Numerous deadly encounters prove that police are ill-equipped to safely and effectively serve people experiencing mental health crises, yet police have been the default first responders for a range of social issues. And as with so many aspects of our broken criminal legal system, Black people become victims in disproportionate numbers. A study published in January 2021 found that police are more likely to shoot and kill Black men who exhibit mental health conditions than white men who display similar behaviors.

          Advocates across the country have called for officials to develop services that curb police involvement in mental health crises, and community organizations have led the way. Approaches vary, but a growing number of cities are starting programs that rely on first responders who aren’t police, such as counselors or social workers, to respond to calls that involve mental health crises and substance use.

          Eugene, Oregon, is home to one of the oldest such civilian response programs in the country, launched in 1989. The Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets (CAHOOTS) program, operated by Eugene’s White Bird Clinic, pairs a medic with a crisis worker to respond to 911 and non-emergency calls involving mental health, homelessness, and substance use. The teams are trained to provide crisis intervention, counseling, basic emergency medical care, transportation, and referrals to services.

          With an annual budget of roughly $2 million, the program saves Eugene $14 million annually in ambulance trips and emergency room costs, plus an estimated $8.5 million in public safety costs—and has successfully diverted thousands from the criminal legal system. Of the estimated 17,700 calls CAHOOTS responded to in 2019, teams requested police backup only 311 times.

          The program has served as a model for places like Denver and Olympia, Washington, with many other cities looking to create their own programs. Of course, every community is different, so a one-size-fits-all approach will not work. Eugene, for example, is more than 80 percent white. White Bird Clinic Director of Consulting Tim Black recognizes that residents have a “healthy enough relationship” with police, so they may feel more comfortable calling 911 for crisis response incidents than people who live in communities that are overpoliced.

          Denver’s Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) program, which launched as a pilot in June 2020, similarly sends health care workers to respond to incidents related to mental health, poverty, homelessness, and substance use. As of May 2021, STAR had successfully responded to 1,323 calls, none of which resulted in injury, arrest, or a request for police backup. Denver’s police chief has said the program “saves lives” and “prevents tragedies.”

          But the program faces criticism from community members and advocates, who have said that responses have been “clinical” and that responders often can’t relate personally to the people they serve. STAR is staffed by social workers who are predominantly white, and advocates envision a community-driven program that includes “providers who share lived experiences and identities with Denver’s diverse population.”

          Polling shows that Democrats, independents, and Republicans alike support programs that replace police with trained experts in situations involving behavioral or mental health crises. But residents, community organizations, behavioral health professionals, and others need to be involved in the creation and implementation of any crisis response program. And stakeholders need to ensure that these programs don’t perpetuate inequities based on who they serve, which calls get diverted, and how first responders work to resolve a situation.

          With American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding, local governments have an opportunity to make real investments in health-first approaches. Denver has already committed to using ARP dollars to enable an expansion of STAR, and other cities—including Charlotte, Long Beach, Phoenix, and San Francisco—are funding similar programs through ARP. Cities need to create and implement programs that actually promote public safety—and save lives.

    • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
      361·
      9 months ago

      “let’s send unarmed people into potentially violent situations what’s the worst that could happen”

      This “what if” mentality, where everyone is out to murder you every minute of every day, is why cops are so trigger happy. This bullshit mentality that people in mental health distress are psycho killers is why cops kill so many.

    • protist@mander.xyzEnglish
      33·
      9 months ago

      I’ve participated in mental health crisis responses as a mental health professional, and I can tell you if there are reports of violence, weapons, or anything pointing toward physical danger, the police will lead or co-respond on the call. Similarly, we know how to gauge risk, IMO better than the police do. We will not engage or will disengage if we sense potential risk to anyone’s physical safety and will call for police backup. When working with the public, you can never eliminate all risk, but there are already a ton of crisis social workers and paramedics out there doing this.

      • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
        135·
        9 months ago

        if there are reports of violence, weapons, or anything pointing toward physical danger, the police will lead or co-respond on the call.

        OOOOHH

        That actually makes total sense; I guess that was the missing piece that I wasn’t envisioning when I was talking about how it doesn’t make sense.

        As a general rule I don’t at all agree with the ACAB or “we have to punish the police now” mentality, but sending mental health professionals to these calls if you’re going to also have police in the subset of situations where they make sense actually sounds like a great step forward. Thanks for the insight.

        • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
          121·
          9 months ago

          Guess it helps if you read the article and get all the facts before reacting…

          I think if more people did that we’d have fewer republicans.

    • aberrate_junior_beatnikEnglish
      331·
      9 months ago

      You are perpetuating the harmful and false stereotype that mentally ill people are more violent than mentally healthy people. Mentally ill people are more likely to be on the receiving end of violence from mentally healthy people than the other way around.

      Bringing a gun into a situation is antithetical to deescalation. The presence of a gun means the stakes have now escalated to life and death. It doesn’t matter how “well trained”, sensible, or humane the person with the gun is; the situation is now escalated and thus much more volatile.

    • Granbo's Holy Hotrod@lemmy.world
      17·
      9 months ago

      The personality types needed for each role are extremely different. Not to mention, the whole culture of police is that THEY are the ONLY thin blue line, keeping back the horrors that await you if you dare to walk outside your house. The answer is to start over from scratch from a place that doesn’t favor the land owners and is considerate of society.

      • Thrashy@lemmy.world
        5·
        9 months ago

        The personality types needed for each role

        The personality types attracted to each role, mind you. Cops become cops because they like the feeling of having power over people, and tend to behave that way on the job. Social workers enter the field because they want to help others, which is why when somebody is in crisis, you should want to send a social worker rather than an emotionally-stunted high school bully who’s armed to the teeth and trained to see deadly threats in every shadow.

        Arguably you need somebody else to fill the role of police as well, but if you tried to do that the current demographic of officers would probably become something like an outlaw biker gang overnight, so it’s hard to see how we get there from here.

        • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
          5·
          9 months ago

          I would say the types who stay in each role.

          Lots of people want to be cops because they still have the ideal of the Andy Taylor community police officer. But they don’t last because of the bad cops.

          Social workers also enter the field because they want to help people. But giving of yourself mentally and emotionally takes a toll, and the people that do it for a long time become hardened.

          • Granbo's Holy Hotrod@lemmy.world
            2·
            9 months ago

            I understood. And I am that jerk. Andy Griffith. And generally, the saying is “Mayberry” usually which is the town he policed. But you had me on Google making sure the guitarist from Duran Duran wasn’t up to no good :D

    • Fades@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      9 months ago

      I’m using Portland OR’s street response as that has been PROVEN, since 2019, covers the whole city as of 2022. NM has similar approach

      How are calls triaged to Portland Street Response?

      Currently, PSR will be dispatched when a caller reports:

      A person who is possibly experiencing a mental health crisis; intoxicated and/or drug affected. This person is outside of a publicly accessible space such as a business, store, public lobby, etc.
A person who is outside and down, not checked.
A person who is outside and yelling.
A person who needs a referral for services, but does not have access to a phone line.

      The call meets the previous criteria - AND

      There are no weapons seen.
The person is not in traffic/not obstructing traffic.
The person is not violent towards others (physically combative, threatening violence, assaulting).
The person is not suicidal.
The person is not inside of a private residence.

      it’s not about “sending unarmed people into potentially violent situations” at all.