What does it mean to defund police, safely and effectively? Cities across the country are looking to a 30-year-old program in Oregon for ideas.
throughout the city, acknowledging that “a lack of equity in our society overall leads to a lot of the problems that police are being asked to solve.” Similar proposals have popped up in Los Angeles and Albuquerque, and Portland is set to launch its own crisis intervention team in the coming weeks. According to operations coordinator Tim Black, CAHOOTS has also been in conversations with cities in Texas, Kentucky and New York.
ailments. And as a Black woman in a white world, Herod understood from a very young age that calling the police “could mean my brother or sister ended up dead.”championed by Herod that put about $2 million into mental health and substance abuse programs, Denver launched Support Team Assisted Response, or STAR. Slated for a one-year pilot program, the single STAR van has already been flooded with more than 50 calls.
“Even if the officer is being supportive, they can have an immediate fear that they’re in trouble or going to jail,” she explains. Allowing people in crisis to talk with a trained counselor or social worker often puts them at ease, which helps everyone find a safe solution quickly. “We have to re-examine, re-evaluate and re-imagine what public safety looks like in the future,” Pazen says. “This movement is a tipping point, it’s a watershed moment. … We have to meet people where they are. Some folks have experienced historical trauma and the uniform, the badge, it reignites that. We need to look at alternative responses.”
“Let’s say you’re asleep on the street,” Black says. “Who would you want to wake you up? Someone with a gun, or a social worker you have a relationship with? A police officer is likely to tower over them, but we’re taught to squat down. And we don’t have a badge or a gun or taser, so our interaction, especially for people of color, isn’t informed by generations of oppression.Many of the current problems in policing related to mental health can be traced back to.
She wishes the general public had a better understanding of mental health struggles and how those in crisis are treated. Because of stigma associated with mental illness, Sailon says, “those individuals are more likely to be victims of violent crimes than perpetrators.”
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