Addressing crime in a community should be a police officer’s main responsibility but according to a new survey from the anti-mass incarceration group Alliance for Safety and Justice, 92% of surveyed officers believe the influx of social problems and issues they respond to would be better handled by community programs.
Renee Hall, former Dallas police chief and president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, talked to NTX Now’s Miranda Suarez and Ron Corning about potential solutions.
Current community programs
Hall explained that when she was police chief, the Dallas Police Department utilized the R.I.G.H.T. Care Program. This program acts as a resource to those experiencing a mental health crisis. Rather than just sending a team of officers who are not trained in these situations, the program sends a team comprised of a police officer, a paramedic, a licensed social worker, and a clinician.
“[R.I.G.H.T. Care] handled a lot of our calls for service and it freed up our officers so that they could be able to handle those priority one and two calls for service that did not require a licensed individual clinician to be able deal with that particular situation,” Hall said.
Potential complications
While these community programs sound like a positive resource, cities are not always equipped with the necessary infrastructure to make them successful…