LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The city of Lousiville is working on a program to include social workers to the Lousiville Metro Police Department to provide support and assistance on certain police runs. This move comes as part of the terms of the $12 million settlement between the city and Breonna Taylor's family.
“We often ask our police officers to not only keep the peace but deal with challenges society has failed to address from mental health to homelessness to substance abuse and everything in between. That’s not fair to our officers. That’s not the best way to address these challenges,” Fischer said during a news conference announcing the settlement.
This idea is not a new concept. While it may not be the exact same as what Louisville will do, we can see the integration of social service professionals in police departments in cities like Eugene, Oregon, Houston, Texas, and Alexandria, Kentucky. Dr. Jay Miller, the Dean of the College of Social Work at the University of Kentucky said many of these similar models have shown positive results.
“The same way that social workers are not trained to deal with certain quote on quote police-type issues, police are also not trained to deal with some of these social work type issues,” Miller said.
A report by the Treatment Advocacy Center finds people with serious, untreated mental illnesses are 16 times more likely to be killed by law enforcement. Miller said social workers have different training and skillsets than officers. With more knowledge of human behavior assessment and response, Miller said social workers are a better fit to respond to certain calls.
“Law enforcement folks will be the first to tell you that there are often calls that may not need a law enforcement response. Think about homelessness and substance abuse. You think about a lot of these social problems that we may criminalize or have historically criminalized. We need to stop doing that," Miller said. "We need to think about how to put into play and how to invest in service provisions that allow for an adequate response to those types of things.”
Miller said the integration of social services employees into police departments is not an either-or situation. Instead, it is an opportunity for people in two different fields with two different skill sets to work together to make a lasting impact.
Fischer said Metro council has already initiated funds for this program. When the department will start hiring social workers is still unclear.
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