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Leaving Behind Uniforms And Sirens, Summit County Sheriff Expands Crisis Response

Leigh Paterson

July 26, 2021 |

KUNC |

Radio |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Frisco, Colorado

The Summit County, Colorado, sheriff's office runs SMART (Systemwide Mental Assessment Response), which pairs armed deputies with clinicians to respond to mental health crises. In 2020, the two teams took hundreds of calls but made only one arrest. Instead, most people are helped on the spot or referred to services that can help. The county plans to expand the service to 24/7 with two more teams, plus one mobile crisis until to handle suicide threats, staffed only by civilian mental health professionals. This report discusses the range of models used nationwide with and without police involvement.

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NYC is sending social workers instead of police to some 911 calls. Here's how it's going.

Ryan W. Miller

July 23, 2021 |

USA Today |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

A pilot project in three New York Police Department precincts of Harlem showed in its first month that it can divert some mental-health crises away from hospitalization and toward other forms of help. Teams of medics and social workers took about one-quarter of such calls, sometimes at NYPD invitation. They sent about half of the people in crisis to a hospital, significantly less often than the police do in such cases. The goal in replacing police is to avoid needless violence and arrests in non-violent, non-criminal emergencies.

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Organizers say Nashua conversation events help community, police find common ground

Meg McIntyre

July 23, 2021 |

Granite State News Collaborative |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Nashua, New Hampshire

A community-led program, Nashua Community Conversations on Race and Justice, has held numerous forums on policing and racial justice for more than five years. Racial justice activists say the effort, featuring breakout groups where residents or students talk to police officers and both sides share their perspectives, have significantly improved police-community relations. But the city's overwhelmingly white police force continues to arrest people of color at disproportionately high rates, showing that "perceptions have changed more than arrest statistics."

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NYC's Non-Police Mental Health Pilot Increasing Rate of Those Getting Aid, Data Show

Darlene Rodriguez

July 22, 2021 |

WNBC-TV |

Broadcast TV News |

Under 3 Minutes

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

In its first month as a pilot project in a part of Harlem, New York's Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division (B-HEARD) handled one-quarter of 911 calls for mental health crises. Despite fears of danger to the teams of social workers and paramedics, police backup was needed only seven times out of 110 cases. More people accepted help from the non-police teams than in the past from teams of police and paramedics. And that help depended half as often on hospital visits. People got helped on the scene or went to community centers for services. The city plans to expand the program.

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Eugene, Oregon, Police Chief: Sending Unarmed Crisis Specialists On Mental Health Calls Saves Lives

Robin Young Allison Hagan

July 22, 2021 |

WBUR |

Radio Talk Show |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Eugene, Oregon

The police chief in Eugene, Ore., home of the CAHOOTS program, which other communities see as the model for finding alternatives to policing, supports the program because it saves lives and saves the city money. Sending unarmed medics and social workers on calls involving behavioral health problems, mental health crises, and substance-use psychotic episodes automatically de-escalates many situations because of the lack of a police presence.

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Outgunned: Why California's groundbreaking firearms law is failing

Robert Lewis

July 21, 2021 |

CalMatters |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, California

Two decades ago, California became the first state to create a system to track and seize guns from people no longer legally permitted to possess a gun. Thousands of guns have been seized. But the database of gun owners now barred from gun possession because of a violent offense, a serious mental illness, or a restraining order has ballooned and many people slip through the cracks of a system "mired in chronic shortcomings." Local police often fail to support the system and the state's investigation bureau is understaffed.

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What Do Police Know About Teenagers? Not Enough.

Meryl Davids Landau

July 17, 2021 |

The New York Times |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Lafayette, Indiana

"Policing the teen brain" is a training regimen devised by Strategies for Youth that teaches police officers to de-escalate conflicts with adolescents to avoid unnecessary incarceration. Youth detention has dropped significantly since Tippecanoe County put most of its officers through the training. Police learn how to account for teens' lowered impulse control and undeveloped problem solving skills. The county decided to pay for the expensive training because detention, which hits Black youth hardest, can be even more costly – and leave lasting damage in the lives of young people.

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What can East Lansing expect from its police oversight commission?

Mikayla Temple

July 16, 2021 |

WSYM-TV |

Broadcast TV News |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Ann Arbor, Michigan

When Ann Arbor created a citizen panel overseeing its police department, it chose the approach that research shows is the one best suited to having real authority, and thus the most likely to reduce racial disparities in arrests and police shootings. It's too soon to know if the agency's investigations of complaints against police and review of police budgets and policies will achieve the ultimate goal of improving community trust in the police. But its chair says it is in a position to press for more accountability and transparency. East Lansing has just adopted the same model.

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The Car Crashes That Go Undetected

Laura Bliss

July 15, 2021 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Washington, District of Columbia

The Vision Zero program many cities use to reduce traffic deaths depends on data to inform where to target safety measures like redesigned streets and speed limits. But, when significant numbers of crashes, particularly involving pedestrians and bicycles, go missing in the data, the interventions miss the problems. Racial disparities in unreported crashes or unresponsive police mean that the problems are compounded in under-served areas. Data improvements in D.C., San Francisco, and other cities aim to fill the gaps so that the benefits of Vision Zero can extend to places where they're needed most.

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How Mental Health First Responders in an Oregon City 'De-escalate' Conflict and Save Lives

Jeff Truesdell

July 15, 2021 |

People |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Eugene, Oregon

CAHOOTS has become a national model because of its uncommon partnership with the Eugene Police Department. The police chief says CAHOOTS' unarmed first responders to mental health crises can de-escalate crises before crimes occur or someone gets hurt. That's the idea behind the decades-old agency that takes calls where police can sometimes cause worse outcomes. The crisis intervention workers and medics treat people on the scene or transport them to places where they can get the help they need. Police are available but rarely needed for safety on those calls.

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