ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — This week, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office and St. Petersburg Police Department both started following through on a promise made over the summer. A promise to approach mental health calls differently by adding more social workers to the departments’ ranks.
The policy shift was part of the fallout from this summer’s demand for police reform.
“We hear you. We’re listening,” Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said at the time.
On Monday, the Pinellas Sheriff’s Office rolled out its expanded mental health unit. Six deputies and two Clearwater police officers now work side-by-side with a team of eight social workers.
On day one they’d already responded to a handful of calls together, hoping to take a more holistic, less-confrontational approach.
Case workers can also follow up with those who need assistance, checking-in on them before things become a crisis.
In St. Petersburg, the police department has launched a similar team called the Community Assistance and Life Liaison program or CALL.
The CALL program also pairs social workers and officers.
The goal is to have counselors respond on their own to incidents involving substance abuse, homelessness and other mental health issues.
Both agencies hope these programs will give them an opportunity to take a more proactive approach to mental health in our community, reaching out to assist people whose contact with police had often ended in arrest – or worse.
In other parts of the country where co-responder programs have been adopted, the idea has shown promising results.
In Colorado, for example, a recent survey found more than half of the cities participating in similar programs had seen fewer arrests and confrontations with law enforcement.
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