Addressing crime in a community should be a police officer's main responsibility but according to a new survey from the anti-mass incarceration group Alliance for Safety and Justice, 92% of surveyed officers believe the influx of social problems and issues they respond to would be better handled by community programs.
Renee Hall, former Dallas police chief and president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, talked to NTX Now's Miranda Suarez and Ron Corning about potential solutions.
Current community programs
Hall explained that when she was police chief, the Dallas Police Department utilized the R.I.G.H.T. Care Program. This program acts as a resource to those experiencing a mental health crisis. Rather than just sending a team of officers who are not trained in these situations, the program sends a team comprised of a police officer, a paramedic, a licensed social worker, and a clinician.
"[R.I.G.H.T. Care] handled a lot of our calls for service and it freed up our officers so that they could be able to handle those priority one and two calls for service that did not require a licensed individual clinician to be able deal with that particular situation," Hall said.
Potential complications
While these community programs sound like a positive resource, cities are not always equipped with the necessary infrastructure to make them successful.
Chief Hall said problems can usually be solved by strategic planning at the city level. In the case of a diversion center in Tarrant County, for example, officers have expressed confusion over protocol and what situations call for an individual to be taken to the diversion center rather than the county jail.
"What is the strategic plan around this one particular center or the centers that exist?" Hall said. "Do officers know when to take the individuals to these locations? Do they have a roadmap as to, 'Here's the location, here are the situations that require you to take this individual to this location, and here is the process?'"
Ideal police officer role in the community
In a perfect world, Hall said a police officer's job would be to engage with their community each and every day and address crime with the proper resources.
"In my ideal world, police would handle police issues," Hall said. "Police would respond to criminal activity and violence, but the police officers would be so busy engaged in the community with our elderly, with our youth, with our everyday citizens and clergy, that I believe that there will be little to respond to."
Miranda Suarez and Ron Corning are the hosts of KERA's NTX Now. Got a tip? Email Miranda at msuarez@kera.org or Ron at rcorning@kera.org.
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