I actually agree with the defund movement on many points. With many cities having officers spending 50%+ of their time on "Bum duty", maybe its time for SF to deal with that problem without law enforcement as the first point of contact and pocket that savings with less staff.
My time around this population, I consider the difference between a bum and a homeless person is a bum does not want a home and have different solutions to them, both of which are not best serviced by law enforcement. My law enforcement family and friends all agree, they dont want to do that job either.
Yes a few social workers might get stabbed in the beginning but I think we can sort out this epidemic.
Thanks for reading and commenting. I couldn’t agree more, cops should not be dealing with as you said, “Bum Duty.” It’s a social worker job.
However, the problem is cops are the least common denominator. So when all city services end, they only usually work business hours, or they can not handle something, or someone, it falls to the police. Since we work 24 hours a day, we’re always available to be sent in as guidance counselors, marriage counselors, homeless resource advocates, social workers, and may other jobs that are well outside our primary function.
Here, those in charge were creating a list of calls we would not go to anymore, like the ones above. But it’s been two years and we are still responding to them, just now with less funding and fewer cops.
As I see it you will need a total of 8 field Social Officers and a manager to have a 24x7 Social Officer available. Many other cities have already put these officers into play to handle mentally ill. Put them through some basic academy training so they understand how to work with officers and not the full POST.
Build an engagement model that deals with the threat continuum so the officer engages first and wait for the Social Officer to show up. Maybe they are dispatched at the same time.
Next an expanded budget for placing the mentally ill in a bed. San Francisco seems to have budget for beds at hotels without mental help, maybe its time to work with the hospitals to expand this service.
Those two would be a start but you could build from here and have multiple teams. Do not do the Seattle method of sending out a bunch of Social Workers and having them get stabbed.
I actually agree with the defund movement on many points. With many cities having officers spending 50%+ of their time on "Bum duty", maybe its time for SF to deal with that problem without law enforcement as the first point of contact and pocket that savings with less staff.
My time around this population, I consider the difference between a bum and a homeless person is a bum does not want a home and have different solutions to them, both of which are not best serviced by law enforcement. My law enforcement family and friends all agree, they dont want to do that job either.
Yes a few social workers might get stabbed in the beginning but I think we can sort out this epidemic.
Thanks for reading and commenting. I couldn’t agree more, cops should not be dealing with as you said, “Bum Duty.” It’s a social worker job.
However, the problem is cops are the least common denominator. So when all city services end, they only usually work business hours, or they can not handle something, or someone, it falls to the police. Since we work 24 hours a day, we’re always available to be sent in as guidance counselors, marriage counselors, homeless resource advocates, social workers, and may other jobs that are well outside our primary function.
Here, those in charge were creating a list of calls we would not go to anymore, like the ones above. But it’s been two years and we are still responding to them, just now with less funding and fewer cops.
As I see it you will need a total of 8 field Social Officers and a manager to have a 24x7 Social Officer available. Many other cities have already put these officers into play to handle mentally ill. Put them through some basic academy training so they understand how to work with officers and not the full POST.
Build an engagement model that deals with the threat continuum so the officer engages first and wait for the Social Officer to show up. Maybe they are dispatched at the same time.
Next an expanded budget for placing the mentally ill in a bed. San Francisco seems to have budget for beds at hotels without mental help, maybe its time to work with the hospitals to expand this service.
Those two would be a start but you could build from here and have multiple teams. Do not do the Seattle method of sending out a bunch of Social Workers and having them get stabbed.