Kentucky town hires social workers instead of more officers

[sun rise]

Given that I've seen a number of stories like this one about various places, I don't find the result surprising at all. This story fits a positive pattern

Kentucky town hires social workers instead of more officers - and the results are surprising

After four years on the job, Pompilio said there has been a significant drop in repeat 911 calls with approximately 15 percent fewer people going to jail.

Now retired, former Alexandria Police Department chief Mike Ward said the results were immediate both for people in need and taxpayers.

“It was close to a $45,000 to $50,000 annual savings from hiring a police officer the first time to hiring a social worker,” Ward said. “They (police social workers) started solving problems for people in our community and for our agency that we’ve never been able to solve before.”

Ward believes the results in Alexandria, a city of less than 10,000, could be replicated in larger cities like Louisville, where officers respond to calls involving mental health, domestic disturbances, and homelessness an average of once every 10 minutes.

“Louisville is very big with services,” Pompilio said. “They have lots of things to offer families. It’s just a matter of a social worker connecting.”

 

[Tambourine]

Here's hope that America will see more of this in the future.

 

[Fool]

Given that I've seen a number of stories like this one about various places, I don't find the result surprising at all. This story fits a positive pattern

Kentucky town hires social workers instead of more officers - and the results are surprising

After four years on the job, Pompilio said there has been a significant drop in repeat 911 calls with approximately 15 percent fewer people going to jail.

Now retired, former Alexandria Police Department chief Mike Ward said the results were immediate both for people in need and taxpayers.

“It was close to a $45,000 to $50,000 annual savings from hiring a police officer the first time to hiring a social worker,” Ward said. “They (police social workers) started solving problems for people in our community and for our agency that we’ve never been able to solve before.”

Ward believes the results in Alexandria, a city of less than 10,000, could be replicated in larger cities like Louisville, where officers respond to calls involving mental health, domestic disturbances, and homelessness an average of once every 10 minutes.

“Louisville is very big with services,” Pompilio said. “They have lots of things to offer families. It’s just a matter of a social worker connecting.”

I've always known correction works better than punishment. Without correction, the person will never know better because they avoid the problem vs overcoming the problem. Empowerment is a good thing. Trying to take away someone's power leaves them feeling vulnerable and worthless. Love empowers

 

[joe1776]

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" ---credited to Ben Franklin

 

[Quintessence]

I know a guy who works in the PD, and he's made remarks along these lines. Or rather, he disagrees that PD's nationwide have been routinely dealing with things that really shouldn't fall under their responsibilities (like responding to mental health crises). I thought his response callous - and the way he said it rather was - but it's true that emergency responders need more diversification. Most of the time when we fall and want a helping hand, it isn't a police-related sort of emergency. It's something better suited to a social worker or therapist. Cheers for us taking mental health as seriously as physical health in this country.

Wait... scratch that... cheers for us taking it more seriously given how messed up our physical health care system is. Let it be better.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

I'm personally tired of being taken to the ER for psych reasons by cops, myself. When I'm in a crisis, I don't want a person with a gun around me. It makes me nervous.