What To Read This Week
1. Security Ambassadors Are Thriving In These Three Cities
Los Angeles Says “Its Safety Ambassadors Have Saved Dozens Of Lives.” For the Long Beach Post News, Jason Ruiz reports that the Los Angeles County Metro’s team of unarmed Transit Ambassadors have “saved 72 lives with 52 of those being attributed to the administration of Narcan to people who have overdosed on opioids [and] twenty other people saved through CPR or suicide prevention.” Transit ambassadors also help riders navigate the public train and bus systems, and a recent survey revealed that riders would “like to see more ambassadors on the agency’s trains and buses.” Indeed, “a majority of riders agreed that they felt safer when they saw an ambassador.” Related: The Metro Board of Directors voted last week to “make its ambassador pilot program permanent… [because the Ambassadors] have improved public safety and helped increase ridership on its transit system.”
“To Combat Fears Of Downtown, Indianapolis Puts Safety Ambassadors On The Streets.” The Washington Post’s Danielle Paquette profiles a day in the life of Scott Person, who “patrols [downtown Indianapolis] from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. every weekday in a red jacket emblazoned with the words ‘Safety Ambassador.’ He carries no gun [and] envisions himself more as an agent of deterrence, betting that most people won’t break the law around someone dressed like a security guard.” Over the course of the day, Mr. Person helps a man with schizophrenia who hasn’t eaten in four days to get a meal; mediates potential tension between workers entering a building and a person sleeping on the sidewalk in front of it; and “gives directions, answers questions and listens to concerns.” Near the end of the day, a man taps him on the back and says: “Just wanted to say thank you for what you do … it makes a difference.”
Oakland’s “Community Ambassadors Help Keep Districts Cleaner And Safer.” In an effort to understand the impact of Oakland’s unarmed security ambassador team, Oaklandside’s Roselyn Romero interviewed over a dozen business owners in the region and found that “most said community ambassadors help keep their districts cleaner and safer [and] the mere presence of community ambassadors increases the sense of safety in their neighborhoods. Here are three snippets from the interviews:
“Hee Rosenthal, owner of The Bento House on Washington Street in Old Oakland, said ambassadors add to the appearance of increased foot traffic, which helps deter crime because more people on the street often means more bystanders who can bear witness to and report crimes when they occur…”
“Des To, co-owner of Alice Street Bakery Café in Chinatown, said ambassadors are making a ‘big contribution’ to the neighborhood. Over the past few months, she hasn’t witnessed any robberies near or at her business, which she said were more common in 2020 and 2021…”
“Silvia Hernandez-McCollow, who co-owns NIDO’s Backyard and Odin Mezcalería in the Jack London District, said community ambassadors have often stepped in when the Oakland Police Department and city officials couldn’t…”
2. Durham Expanding Program “That Sends Unarmed Specialists Instead Of Police.”
For the News and Observer, Mary Helen Moore reports on the expansion of the city’s much-lauded Holistic Empathetic Assistance Response Teams, or HEART, “the first program of its kind in North Carolina” that will now “respond citywide for at least 12 hours every day, including holidays” to “mental health crises, trespassing calls, welfare checks and more.”
The team, which is dispatched through the city’s 911 call center, has responded to over 9,000 calls since their launch last summer. The nearly $5 million infusion will allow HEART first responders—composed of crisis counselors and social workers—to expand their ranks by about 150% and triple their 911 call response volume across the city.
What City Leaders Are Saying:
Durham Police Chief Patrice Andrews told the local CBS affiliate that HEART’s “expansion is a way to offer more support to our residents experiencing a mental health crisis [while] enabling us to focus on more appropriate law enforcement needs throughout our community.”
Durham Mayor Pro Tempore Mark-Anthony Middleton explained to Durham’s local ABC affiliate why the city needed HEART in an expanded role: “Sometimes people don't need handcuffs, they need a doctor, they need a counselor, they need a meal…”
Tracy Jackson is a social worker on the HEART team. A week into what he calls his “dream job,” Jackson “saw what a difference he could make” in the city. As he told WRAL, the local NBC affiliate:
“911 received a call from a gentleman who was in distress… we responded and he expressed that he was overwhelmed, he had just lost his job that he had for 20 years. He was unsure of how he was going to pay his rent, his children were also in crisis, [and] he was a single father…. But we were able to connect him to resources to get his rent paid, and also provide some therapeutic support through our clinicians and peer support specialist.”
Durham’s HEART expansion is part of Durham’s broader public safety plan, which could also include, for example, “a survivor care office to serve victims of gun violence[,] making opioid reversal kits available to all city and county staff[,] creating an Office of Survivor Care to support victims of violent crime and their families[,] and replacing vacant police positions with unarmed teams that respond to 911 calls.”
Related: Two additional exciting mobile crisis team related developments, both from California:
Watch the mobile crisis team in action: San Diego County produced an excellent video of a ride-along with the county’s mobile crisis response team. In under five minutes, the video provides a real sense of the vital work these first responders are doing.
Riverside County deploys respite vehicles, which are “specially-equipped vans” that mobile crisis teams use to provide enhanced emergency healthcare during calls for service. People in crisis “can come in and have a safe place where they can wash up and be in a comfortable environment where they can really sit down and talk to somebody.”
