Police Making Referrals for Social and Mental Health Services
One of the hottest issues in Chicago, and across the country, is how the police should coordinate with (or surrender some of its functions to) social services. I took this subject up in my first issue-specific video, on Dec. 17, 2022 (view on Youtube, or on my Videos page). In this video, I offer a suggestion for improving the coordination between policing and other support services, such as mental health, and youth jobs programs.
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On Facebook, Robin Koloms then responded: "The police should not be involved with mental health services. As it is, there are more mentally ill people is prison than in treatment."
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My "Rebuttal" (well, not really a rebuttal)
12–23–22
I am arguing against police treating people for mental health issues. Rather, we should improve the system to connect those who need services to appropriate services. It would be foolhardy to keep police away from troubled persons altogether, as you imply when you say they "should not be involved" (or do I misunderstand you?). If someone calls the police, and the police show up and see that someone is in need, what are they supposed to do? Say "Oh no! I can't do anything about this. Goodbye!"? Even if they pack up and leave and call around looking for some expert to attend to the troubled person, that is a kind of referral and involvement.
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The Treatment Not Trauma style alternative is to have OEMC (the Office of Emergency Management and Communication) tele-communicators make the decision which "expert" to send to a caller on the phone. This makes little sense to me. It is a recipe for the murder of social workers.
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The Consent Decree (p. 9) already requires police to make the types of referrals I recommend, specifically for youth:
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When interacting with youth and children, CPD will, as appropriate and permitted by law, encourage officers to exercise discretion to use alternatives to arrest and alternatives to referral to juvenile court, including, but not limited to: issuing warnings and providing guidance; referral to community services and resources such as mental health, drug treatment, mentoring, and counseling organizations, educational services, and other agencies; station adjustments; and civil citations.
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It sounds to me like you flatly disagree with the Consent Decree on this matter.
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I think referrals of youth and children are an even more sensitive matter than referral of adults. It strikes me as unwise to expect police to be more expert in making referrals for children and youth than in making them for adults.
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My main point is that police need to both be more knowledgeable about social and other services, and have better access to those who focus professionally on connecting troubled persons to the right services. My current inclination is to think that such professionals to whom police should have direct access should be in the employ of some other department of government besides CPD — perhaps the Community Safety Coordination Center, possibly OEMC (though I am dubious of their competence to do this at the present time), or some other department or agency — but should be placed at police district stations.
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I offer all this as a pitch for community members to hash out this issue and work out a new approach to the problem. And perhaps the solution should be tailored to the needs and views of residents in each police district.