Commentary on crime in local news coverage tends to focus on what journalists are getting wrong. Yet, local television news stations across the country have provided compelling, fair, and informative reporting on the efforts that cities are making to create a more comprehensive approach to public safety. Over the next few editions, Safer Cities will highlight some of the best coverage we’ve watched. Today, for example, are two must-watch segments on Albuquerque’s Community Safety Department:
- ACS Turns One: “Albuquerque Community Safety Team Easing Albuquerque Police Department’s Load on 911 Calls.” For KRQE, Alexa Skonieski interviewed Mariela Ruiz-Angel, Director of Albuquerque Community Safety, who explained, “[t]he reason that we started Albuquerque Community Safety was so that ultimately it would divert 911 calls that would normally go to police and really jam up our system and be able to take those and put them with A-C-S.” And, as Ruiz-Angel explains, there is tremendous demand for A-C-S’s services: “We have calls pending when we get to the office at 7am and we have calls that we have to unfortunately sometimes kick back to the police department at 8pm.”
- ACS Turns Two: “Albuquerque’s Community Safety Department becomes national role model.” For KOB4, Griffin Rushton detailed the department’s early milestones: “Albuquerque’s Community Safety Department is not even two years old, but it’s earned quite the reputation. In just about 17 months, the department’s 42 civilian employees have responded to more than 20,000 calls across the city.” Rushton interviewed Joshua Reeves, a division manager for the community safety department, who described a recent call that involved “a situation where there was a man who was on a bridge and wanted to jump off. Police also happen to go to the same call, and what we’ve noticed the officers now are learning to defer to us as sort of the people who might de-escalate and talk to that individual because it’s a little easier for us to build a rapport.”