Mobile crisis response program draws national attention but still struggles with funding

Dave Miller Allison Frost

June 02, 2021 |

Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) |

Radio Talk Show |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Eugene, Oregon

The CAHOOTS program's national popularity as a model for diverting crisis calls from the police to unarmed teams of a medic and counselor belies its inability to fully serve its own community because of under-funding. Program director Ebony Morgan talks about the flip side of the program's cost savings for the city: unfairly low pay for its workers, long response times, and an inability to expand. The program's success with the community is built on trust that people in crisis will be helped rather than viewed as a threat. Morgan says the program itself needs to be valued more by city budget managers.

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Enlisting Mental Health Workers, Not Cops, In Mobile Crisis Response

Rob Waters

June 01, 2021 |

Health Affairs |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Eugene, Oregon

The long-running CAHOOTS program, which replaces police with medics and social workers to respond to non-violent, non-criminal mental health crises, suicide threats, and problems stemming from homelessness, serves as a model for similar programs in the nationwide push to reimagine policing. CAHOOTS teams de-escalate crises at first simply because they are not armed police. They also take the time and have the training to calm situations and get people the help they need. Programs in Phoenix and Denver demonstrate how the idea plays out in larger cities.

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St. Louis technology detects lots of gunfire, but calls often lead to a dead end

Erin Heffernan

May 31, 2021 |

St. Louis Post-Dispatch |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis was one of the first cities to adopt ShotSpotter technology, which uses a network of microphones, software, and human monitors to detect and analyze gunshot sounds. The detection system summoned police more than 15,000 times last year. Only 1% of those calls in a 10-year span yielded enough evidence to result in a police report, and only 13 arrests resulted. There is no evidence that the system actually reduced gun violence. Advocates say the system, which costs St. Louis taxpayers and a nonprofit group more than $1 million per year, yields other useful intelligence and should be maintained.

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D.C. police recruits are learning about Black history, go-go music and half-smokes. Leaders think it will make them better officers.

Peter Hermann

May 29, 2021 |

The Washington Post |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Washington, District of Columbia

Unsuccessful at filling its police officer ranks with more people of color from the neighborhoods where they'll patrol, the D.C. police department takes its largely white recruit classes into those neighborhoods for lessons on local history and culture. Residents talk to the new officers about their need for safety but their fear and resentment of police abuses. They also educate them about local customs that outsiders might see as a threat until they have a deeper understanding of the culture.

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APD touts progress in preventing gun crime through intervention program

Chris McKee

May 28, 2021 |

KRQE-TV |

Broadcast TV News |

Under 3 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Albuquerque, New Mexico

When young people with criminal records get shot in Albuquerque, they may get visited by the police department's Violence Intervention Program: cops and counselors urging the victims to resist the impulse to retaliate. Shooting victims are offered social and health services meant to stabilize their lives. In its first year, the team contacted 149 people, nearly all of whom stayed out of criminal trouble. None got caught with a gun and only one got shot again.

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'Gang Contracts' in Cicero and Berwyn Schools Raise Concerns About Criminalization of Youth

Irene Romulo

May 26, 2021 |

Cicero Independiente |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Cicero, Illinois

"Gang contracts" are used by many schools as a way to tell students they are suspected of gang activity and must avoid such activity or face discipline or expulsion. Gang contracts have been put to extensive use in the high schools and middle schools of two towns, Cicero and Berwyn, that underwent large demographic shifts toward more Latinx residents since the 1990s. Meant to make schools safer and put students on a better path, they have been based often on vague, unsubstantiated suspicions in Cicero and Berwyn. Critics cite evidence that young people are wrongly criminalized and denied educations.

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With policing in the spotlight, districts search for alternatives to SROs

Meg McIntyre

May 25, 2021 |

Concord Monitor |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Plymouth, Minnesota

As New Hampshire schools debate the presence of police officers stationed in schools, one model they and other states can consider is found at Minnesota Intermediate School District 287. That district lowered in-school arrests dramatically by replacing school resource officers (SROs) with student safety coaches, trained in de-escalation tactics and crisis intervention. While some staff cite safety fears now, school officials say healthier relationships form between staff and students when help, not law enforcement, is the response to problems.

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There's a detective at the door; she wants to say 'sorry'

Caitlin Schmidt

May 22, 2021 |

Arizona Daily Star |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Tucson, Arizona

Using a federal grant to reopen unsolved sexual assault cases, Tucson police and prosecutors have provided hundreds of victims with something they were denied when they first reported being attacked: a clear sense that authorities take their cases seriously. Dozens of possible serial rapists were identified when DNA testing was finally performed, and several suspects were prosecuted. When notifying victims their long-ago cases were getting a second look, detectives and victim advocates start with an apology for neglecting or mishandling the cases in the past.

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Philly mothers of gun violence victims work to solve their children's murders

Jo Piazza

May 20, 2021 |

The Philadelphia Citizen |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia police fail to solve most of the city's growing number of homicides, in part because of the no-snitching street code, a byproduct of the community's lack of trust in police. But the streets do sometimes talk when the mothers of murder victims do their own detective work. A number of cases were solved because mothers turned their grief into a resolve to hunt down evidence that they turned over to the police. Their work grows out of the many support groups they have formed to help each other, and from a YouTube channel that helps them draw attention to unsolved murders.

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Baltimore's top cop in demand as cities seek consent decree advice; some locally criticize cost, pace of reform here

Jessica Anderson

May 20, 2021 |

The Washington Post |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Baltimore, Maryland

The Baltimore Police Department was the last agency to enter into a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice during the Trump administration. This is a process by which a troubled police department submits to federal oversight as a way to reform its practices and culture. Now that the Biden administration has signaled a willingness to use this tool more, police are looking to Baltimore as a model. A federal monitor cites multiple signs of progress in Baltimore. But local activists are frustrated with the slow pace of change and high costs of federal monitoring.

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