You are not the odd man out. Police officers have been complaining about this for at least as long as I have worked in law enforcement. Police officers should not be making mental health calls, or at the very least, should only be there to make sure the mental health professionals are not injured. The calls are dangerous, which is why they got transferred to the police, but that truly does make them dangerous to the subject. If a person has a mental health issue and starts swinging a sword at people, the police will respond as if it were a man with a weapon call. That is how cops think and work. We have some who will recognize the psychotic break and try to help, but they do it with guns drawn and ready to shoot. Having mental health professionals who are not trained as cops and armed might make these situations safer for the subjects.chasfm11 wrote: ↑Tue Jun 09, 2020 5:18 pmSo I may be the old man out on this but there is a nugget of truth in one of her statements.She replied: "We've looked at every reason that folks call 911. Why are people in Minneapolis calling for help? And we're starting to pair what's the right response to those calls. In the short term that helps our police officers focus on the work that they're trained to do, while we have a better response to people who have a mental health crisis or a physical health crisis.”
There are a lot of calls that would be better handled by social workers. Police even call them quality of life calls. Things like the neighbor's dogs barking, trash in the area, etc. Some of the worst are from the elderly who are really looking for someone to talk to more than anything else. I had one call at around 3:00 a.m. from an elderly woman who wanted help because her water was too hot when she wanted to tried to bathe. Fortunately, it was in a small town and my partner and I had the time to talk to her, explain how to adjust the water heater (and do it for her), and let her know we are always there if she needs help. I could not see us being able to do that if I were still in San Antonio. These type of calls might be best handled by properly trained social workers. A cop backup just to keep it safe would be okay, but the police should not be the primary or only people on the call.
Yes, in Luling, there are better chances of cops who are community oriented and will help with these calls. San Antonio (or any larger city) should invest in other specialties to work with the police and let the police handle the calls for crimes. On that one point, I can certainly agree with reforming police work. I just somehow think this is not how the groups yelling to defund the police mean this.