By Andrew Hay

Unarmed emergency responders Nevada Sanchez and Sean Martin take a police dispatch call in southeast Albuquerque, New Mexico, a city with high rates of violent crime and police shootings.

They have no enforcement powers or protective equipment and say they use their voices and brains to deescalate encounters with people in mental health and substance abuse crises.

On some occasions they may have saved lives.

…

Albuquerque, with the second highest rate of police killings among U.S. cities over 250,000 people, according to Mapping Police Violence, has set up one of the country’s most ambitious civilian responder programs to offer help rather than law enforcement to people in crisis.

Such initiatives have spread like “wildfire” across the United States since the 2020 murder of George Floyd highlighted police killings of people of color and those suffering from mental illness or substance abuse, said Alex Vitale, professor of sociology at Brooklyn College.

  • Fades@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    8 months ago

    I’m using Portland OR’s street response as that has been PROVEN, since 2019, covers the whole city as of 2022. NM has similar approach

    How are calls triaged to Portland Street Response?

    Currently, PSR will be dispatched when a caller reports:

    A person who is possibly experiencing a mental health crisis; intoxicated and/or drug affected. This person is outside of a publicly accessible space such as a business, store, public lobby, etc.
A person who is outside and down, not checked.
A person who is outside and yelling.
A person who needs a referral for services, but does not have access to a phone line.

    The call meets the previous criteria - AND

    There are no weapons seen.
The person is not in traffic/not obstructing traffic.
The person is not violent towards others (physically combative, threatening violence, assaulting).
The person is not suicidal.
The person is not inside of a private residence.

    it’s not about “sending unarmed people into potentially violent situations” at all.