Three Things To Read This Week
1. Will Portland Become The Next City To Build A Community Safety Department?
For The Oregonian, Lillian Mongeau Hughes reports that Portland City Council’s public safety committee passed a resolution last week that would make Portland Street Response “which responds to mental health crises, an independent, co-equal branch of the city’s emergency response system… equal to police or fire.” The resolution now goes in front of the full city council for a vote.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson, a vocal supporter of the team that he calls a “a success story” for the city and its residents who need care from mental health professionals, has been expanding the reach and function of the team—elevating it with the capabilities that other first responders like police, fire and EMS already deploy—for some time.
Portland is poised to form what other cities around the country are calling a “third branch of public safety” co-equal with the police department and fire department, often called a Community Safety Department, which houses a city’s civilian responder teams. For example:
Albuquerque, New Mexico’s community safety department marked its third-year anniversary last month and “recognized a pivotal achievement,” as Gabe Chavez reports for KRQE News, “the department has responded to over 100,000 calls.” Albuquerque’s Community Safety Department has become a national model for other cities and counties looking to community safety departments to help modernize their public safety infrastructure.
Cambridge, Massachusetts’ community safety department is about to celebrate its first year in operation, having already responded to hundreds of 911 mental health calls for service “that would have traditionally been handled by law enforcement.” Teams respond to mental health and substance use related 911 calls, Monday through Friday, and provide case management services on an ongoing basis, including “housing search, addressing food insecurity, eviction aid,” and connection to other vital services in the city. The city just published its inaugural impact report on the team, check that out here.
In Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka—who, over the last decade as mayor, has supported the establishment of an ecosystem of community safety programs, including long standing community-based and hospital-based violence intervention; homelessness outreach; and mental health crisis care—told Safer Cities that he sees a role for a community safety department in the city, “whether it’s what we’re doing in Newark to incorporate [a broad array of programs and services] into a larger public safety strategy, or it’s what they're doing in Albuquerque, which is a novel and incredible idea to have a separate [community safety] department.”
Related: In a recent national public opinion survey, Safer Cities found that voters overwhelmingly support Community Safety Departments, with 76% saying that they believe the divisions are “effective” at “making your community safer.” With 56% preferring to allocate new public safety dollars to community safety departments, even over hiring more police officers. Read the full results here.
2. Shifting Law Enforcement Perspectives On Responding To Mental Health Calls.
In Michigan, “about eight out of every 10 Michigan county sheriffs and local police chiefs support having some type of specialized emergency response that would include professionals in fields like mental health and social work for some 911 calls,” a new state survey of law enforcement professionals found, Rachel Mintz reported for Michigan Public Radio. The survey also found that “many law enforcement and local government leaders believe their local 911 service receives too many calls for situations that do not require law enforcement attention.”
In Austin, Texas, Austin Police Association President Michael Bullock recently testified before Austin City Council that “it’s time that we work towards getting law enforcement out of mental health. We have never claimed to be the experts, but yet we have been charged with the responsibility of responding to mental health crisis. And taking these positive steps towards identifying better ways to divert these calls, to have a more robust mental health response system, I believe is a positive step.”
A key component of the success of the city’s lauded Expanded Mobile Crisis Outreach Team—which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services deemed a “national role model”—is the city’s unique approach to their 911 dispatch center: when you call 911 in Austin, Texas, a dispatcher will ask you: “Do you need fire, EMS, police, or mental health.” That fourth option—“mental health”—is an innovation that started in Austin, as Safer Cities has reported previously.Across California:
In Sacramento County: Sheriff Jim Cooper announced that his deputies will no longer be dispatched to mental health calls unless a crime is being committed, and instead mental health experts will respond, Rosalio Ahumada reported for The Sacramento Bee. Here’s what Sheriff Cooper said: “Being mentally ill is not a crime and we can't be the answer. Law enforcement officers are not trained mental health professionals… We're not psychiatrists and psychologists. We don't deal with it. We've had minimal training at de-escalation… We wear the badge, we carry the gun, we deal with crime, not mental health crises.” Now, the sheriff said, the county “will directly connect mental health calls without a crime component” to the mental health professionals at the 988 dispatch center.
In Orange County: Sheriff Don Barnes, president of the California State Sheriffs Association, told CalMatters this week that law enforcement is “not in the profession of white coats coming out to take somebody to the hospital… [and that he] has long been committed to getting his department ‘out of social work.’”
In Del Norte County: Sheriff Garrett Scott explained to the Del Norte Triplicate that he “will no longer dispatch his deputies to non-criminal mental health calls… the responsibility of assisting those with mental health needs belongs with the trained staff from the mobile crisis units from Dept.of Health and Human Services.”
In Indianapolis, Indiana: Metropolitan Police Department Chief Chris Bailey told Fox59 News, following the announcement of the city’s new mental health response plan “to improve the response to mental health issues in the community by various first responders, without always having police take the lead.” Chief Bailey explained he supports the plan because when it comes to mental health calls for service, “a law enforcement response isn’t always necessary or appropriate…our goal is simple, it’s to make sure individuals in crisis receive the most appropriate care and effective care while also prioritizing the safety of everyone involved.”
3. Three Creative Ways For Cities To Expand Access to Narcan.
A “convenience store in Midtown Nashville has become the first of its kind to provide free opioid overdose reversal medication to the community… [with] a vending machine stocked with [Narcan] installed outside the store,” Aubriella Jackson reports for WKRN.
“EMS workers in Kent County, [Michigan] will be able to distribute NARCAN kits throughout the community,” Sarah Edgecomb reports for WZZM. These leave-behind overdose response “kits are user-friendly and include step-by-step instructions alongside other resources for those who may be struggling with substance use… [and can be left] at the scene of opioid-related emergencies or with people who have a substance use disorder.” The program “was launched by Kent County Emergency Medical Services (KCEMS) in partnership with the Grand Rapids Red Project and the Grand Rapids Police Department.”
“The Texas Department of State Health Services has launched an online tool that pinpoints where people can obtain the overdose-reversing drug Narcan,” Marian Navarro reports for Texas Public Radio. The app “allows Texans to type in an address or ZIP code to see where over-the-counter drug Narcan can be purchased or obtained for free … [and] describes the type of site—like a community clinic or vending machine—lists their operating hours and provides contact information.”
