The heads of Albuquerque’s three branches of public safety—Fire Chief Emily Jaramillo, Police Chief Harold Medina, Community Safety Director Mariela Ruiz-Angel—penned a joint opinion piece in The Albuquerque Journal explaining why other cities across the country, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice, view Albuquerque’s approach as a leading “model for investing in modern public safety”:
“The Albuquerque Community Safety Department… responds to emergency calls related to substance abuse, mental health and homelessness, diverting nearly 20,000 calls from the Albuquerque Police Department to date… This frees up sworn officers to focus on violent crime. The results are starting to show. Officers are responding quicker to emergency and non-emergency calls.”
In USA Today, Currie Myers, the former sheriff of Johnson County, Kansas and Ja’Ron Smith, who heads the conservative-leaning Public Safety Solutions for America, write that while …
“Police play a critical role in ensuring public safety… they do not have the same knowledge, training and expertise as mental health professionals and should not be the first responders for most situations involving a person experiencing a mental illness crisis … [Instead,] Law enforcement should be focused on preventing and solving serious crime.”