Local Politics

Raleigh police to start sending social workers with officers responding to some 911 calls

The Raleigh Police Department is changing the way it handles emergency calls involving people struggling with mental health issues, homelessness and substance abuse.

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By
Keely Arthur
, WRAL reporter, & Matthew Burns, WRAL.com senior producer/politics editor
RALEIGH, N.C. — The Raleigh Police Department is changing the way it handles emergency calls involving people struggling with mental health issues, homelessness and substance abuse.

Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown told the Raleigh City Council on Tuesday that she is establishing a team in her department that will have social workers respond with officers to some 911 calls to help provide longer-term solutions to problems.

The Addressing Crisis through Outreach, Referrals, Networking and Service, or ACORNS, team will include a sergeant as supervisor, a detective, three officers and three social workers. Deck-Brown said she is shifting funding in the police department to fill the three social worker positions and hopes to have the team put together by the end of the year.

Homeless people and those in mental health crisis often wind up in jail because there aren't adequate resources to treat them. Deck-Brown said the ACORNS team will work with outside agencies to provide intervention strategies and services to meet the specific needs of individuals in crisis.

"Beyond the first 24 hours, so to speak," she said.

Some people immediately criticized the plan, saying police shouldn't be the first responders for mental health and that Raleigh would be better served investing money in social service programs instead of the police department.

Councilman Jonathan Melton, for example, pushed for having more social workers and fewer officers on the ACORNS team, saying "you don't need a sworn officer with a badge and a gun to show up" when someone needs mental health assistance.

Deck-Brown said the officers and social workers work as two-person teams.

City Manager Ruffin Hall said police already have to deal with homeless and mentally ill people on the street on a daily basis.

"Police officers today, perhaps more than ever, are being asked to deal with sets of challenges that go outside the traditional framework of policing," Hall said. "So, whether or not you put the topics within the department or structure it somewhere outside the department will not take away that challenge. They're going to be faced with these issues regardless."

Deck-Brown said the homeless and those with mental illness are often overlooked in public, but they became more noticeable this spring, when most people were at home during the early weeks of the pandemic.

"When everyone is staying home, it is more prevalent," she said. "We responded to those calls, and we had officers that bought them food, and we had officers that provided them with substance and other things."

She agreed with Hall that police have a role to play in alleviating mental health issues and homelessness in Raleigh.

"We come to this job as social workers. We wear many hats," she said. "So, I think that this is such an opportunity on how we can pay even more focused attention to providing services and enhancing that overall quality of life that we all talk about and we want."

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