Three Things To Read This Week
1. “You Wouldn’t Call Your Plumber To Fix Your Teeth.”
For years, police departments have been the default responders to a wide range of crises—from violent crimes to mental health emergencies. But Sarah Henrickson, co-founder of Madison, Wisconsin’s lauded CARES mobile crisis team, explained to The Badger’s Peter Cameron why that model is outdated:
“You wouldn’t call your plumber to fix your teeth. You want the expertise to match with what the issue is.”
That's because matching the right expertise to the right issue provides better care to people in crisis and enhances public safety. As The Badger reports, “The rise and spread of [mobile crisis response teams] have the benefit of being both pro-police, by relieving stretched law enforcement agencies of a significant number of calls, many of them needing experts, and also being pro-patient, in which folks with mental health issues can have root causes treated rather than their symptoms.”
Mobile crisis response programs reduce interactions with police. “Many of the people who get proper treatment from these programs have fewer run-ins with police moving forward, as well as fewer detentions and hospitalizations,” said Thomas Dee, a Stanford economist studying alternative crisis response models whose own research has found such results.
These programs allow police to focus on more serious crimes. In Madison, Wisconsin, the CARES (Community Alternative Response Emergency Services) team handled over 3,500 calls in 2024 with a budget of $1.7 million—calls that otherwise would have gone to police.
Patrick Solar, a former police chief and current professor at UW-Platteville, is a vocal supporter of Wisconsin’s growing commitment to mobile crisis response and explained to the newspaper why law enforcement back these responder teams:
“Cops are neither adequately trained nor educated on how to deal with mental health crises. Leaving these issues to the police is very risky.”
Related. For The Seattle Times, Taylor Blatchford reports that the University of Washington will launch a mobile crisis response team in Spring 2025 with an aim “to de-escalate crises and help the person in crisis connect to other services.” The newspaper describes the new mobile crisis program as “based on a philosophy that’s become increasingly mainstream: Mental health professionals are better equipped than police to respond to some emergencies.”
As Sally Clark, the university’s Vice President of Campus Community Safety, told the Times, “[t]oo often, law enforcement is called on to respond, and too often law enforcement has found that they’ve not been well equipped in order to have the response that they want to have, let alone the response that the community wants to have. And in some of those cases, there have been really tragic results for everybody.”
2. Sobering Centers Are Helping These Cities Move Beyond Jail and Emergency Rooms.
“A Safe Place for People to Sober Up as an Alternative to Jail or the Emergency Room.” For KUT News in Austin, Kate McAfee reports on Austin’s expansion of its successful sobering center, which is “reducing the clog of the county’s jail and hospitals with folks who [are] publicly intoxicated” by offering a safe place for “[people] struggling with alcoholism or substance-use disorder [to] college students or tourists who had a rough night” to recover at until they get connected with a long term rehabilitation program.
A Cost-Saving Investment. The center—which has already provided treatment to more than 13,000 people since it first opened its doors in 2018—is also saving taxpayers money. As KUT News reports, a “third party public health researcher found that for every $1 the community spends on the Sobering Center, the community gets back $2—dollars saved by diverting folks from Travis County Jail or an emergency room.”
Breaking The Cycle Of Arrest, Jail, And ER Visits. For some individuals, the Sobering Center is more than just a one-time intervention—it’s a gateway to long-term stability. Ashlyn Branscum, a staff member at the center, recalled how the center was able to help stabilize a man who has since become a patient at the center, after a period of being far more likely to be picked up by the police:
“We had a guy who we saw a lot of, [he was picked up by authorities] 75 times in 135 days, which is a really high first responder utilizer…’ About a dozen of those times he landed at the Sobering Center. ‘He was living on the streets, he was a veteran and he was uninsured, and so our staff made the decision to keep him on the fly and we were able to get him connected to treatment after staying here for a couple days .’”
In Oregon, Multnomah County Moves Forward With Permanent Sobering Center. For Oregon Public Broadcasting, Michelle Wiley reports on Multnomah County’s development of their new Sobering Center—a 24,000 square foot facility that will have “up to 50 beds offering a combination of sobering and withdrawal management [and] crisis stabilization services.” The facility will give “law enforcement and first responders [a place] to drop people off 24/7” instead of a jail or ER. County Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards, a supporter of the new center, explained to the newspaper that the facility is supported by the county’s law enforcement and public health leaders: “since my first day in office, I have heard from first responders the urgent need for more options for people intoxicated on the streets, beyond taking people to the emergency room, to jail or leaving them on the street…. a permanent sobering and crisis stabilization center are significant steps forward in community safety and livability."
3. Detroit’s Police Chief Signals Strong Support For Community Violence Intervention Programs.
As deputy mayor, Todd Bettison, Detroit's new police chief, helped launch Shot Stoppers, a program funding local organizations to prevent violence in high-crime areas. Now, as police chief, he’s committed to expanding Community Violence Intervention: “Only a fool tries to fix what isn’t broken,” Deputy Mayor Bettison said to The Detroit News, reinforcing his focus on investing in CVI’s success in the city.
Detroit’s approach is showing results, and law enforcement leaders are making it clear they respect the role of CVI. Homicides are down, and city leaders cite Detroit’s much-lauded CVI program as a key factor. Dujuan Kennedy, a CVI leader in the city, told The Detroit Free Press that Deputy Mayor Bettison “has been building relationships with those on the ground working to prevent violent crime in Detroit for over a decade…You exemplify what an officer is. You exemplify what a chief should be.”
Related. In Cleveland, University Hospitals’ violence intervention program helps young gunshot victims build a “successful recovery and decrease the incidence of future violence and injury,” as Stephen Langel detailed for Ideastream Public Media. A recent study found that before the program began, 29% of young gunshot victims were violently reinjured within a year. However, among 600+ participants, that number dropped by 10 percentage points over five years.
