A welcome approach

Social workers prove successful in Springdale

In terms of patriarchal hand-medowns, a lot of us received, whether solicited or not, the sage advice to “use the right tool for the job.”

And the more any of us do pretty much any kind of work, the more convinced we become that the old guys had it right. The right tool makes a job simpler, gets it done more quickly and safely, then in the end, produces a more desirable result.

Law enforcement agencies and officers are important tools of public safety within our communities. Leaders of the profession, however, are sometimes the first to suggest society has relied too heavily on law enforcement officers as an incomplete answer to too many social ills — poverty, homelessness, mental illness, substance abuse. Yes, some people are hardened criminals who must be dealt with aggressively, and leave communities little choice in the matter. Many, many more are people who have gotten themselves into bad circumstances and responded poorly to them for any one of the above-listed reasons, and others.

The response to, and death of, George Floyd in Minnesota in 2020 reenergized discussions nationwide about how law enforcement behaves and whether communities get it right by relying on officers for every kind of call for help.

It appears the involvement of social work students from the University of Arkansas in the day-to-day calls to the Springdale Police Department has reinforced grandpa’s advice to use the right tool for the job.

Two interns have worked in Springdale since last semester, using their knowledge and skills as an alternative to a typical law enforcement response. Don’t get us wrong: We know law enforcement officers can have a passion to help out their neighbors, but their primary training centers on — surprise, surprise — enforcing laws. While some officers are adept at calming tensions and they know a bit about directing people to community resources, they can also regularly be stuck with two choices: let the person causing a disruption go or take them to jail.

Last week, learned Democrat-Gazette about the Springdale readers social work interns and the work they’ve been doing that’s helped people stay out of jail and directed them to community services more helpful to their particular challenges. A similar use of social workers from the UA School of Social Work happened in 2021 within the Fayetteville Police Department.

Whereas officers are routinely needed back on the streets as soon as possible, social workers could devote more time to more complex responses that didn’t involve jail. Since they aren’t uniformed officers, they can sometimes build trust with someone going through a difficult and disruptive time.

The experiences of the Fayetteville and Springdale police department’s provide a sample of the possibilities. Social workers are more aware of community resources, limited as they be, that can be more productive than incarceration. It might involve mental health treatment. Or just some help adjusting a routine so it works better to preserve needed predictability in a disabled person’s life.

With calm, knowledgeable and empathetic responses, the social workers have “touched hundreds of people” in their short time in Springdale, keeping them out of jail and lengthy entanglements with the judicial system.

Springdale’s interns will depart soon as they wrap up their school year at the University of Arkansas. Perhaps the best testament to whether they’ve made a difference was Springdale Capt. Derek Wright’s description of his team’s reaction.

“We’re trying to come up with a way to make them fail, so they will have to stay with us,” Wright teased. Defund the police” was the mantra of some in the wake of high-profile cases where police officers responded poorly and, in a few cases, illegally. The most radical actually meant that — shut them down — and they were wrong. Others got behind the mantra as a way to push for a shift in priorities not entirely unlike what Springdale and Fayetteville got a taste of with the UA social work interns.

None of this should be used as an argument for one and against the other. Communities need law enforcement officers. But there’s a lot going on out there for which social workers are better suited. Local, state and federal governments should keep working toward developing and funding systems that can put social workers’ expertise to work.

This goes beyond social workers, though. They can only be effective if there are community services to which people can be referred and resources designed to help address issues such as drug abuse, anger management, PTSD in veterans, safety from domestic abuse and similar challenges. For example, the state-funded Northwest Arkansas Crisis Stabilization Unit in Fayetteville, where people going through a mental health crisis can be taken for treatment, has been closed nearly a year after a funding change led to a provider’s withdrawal. That cannot be allowed to happen again.

Investments in other social services — the kind public officials often find easy to ignore — will be a vital part in lifting these burdens off law enforcement, allowing them to focus on the core part of their jobs, and giving social workers the tools to be responsive.

What some refer to as police reform efforts — it’s really broader than that — “could benefit from a collaborative relationship between law enforcement and social work that would lead to a greatly enhanced public safety and psychosocial safety net,” according to the National Association of Social Workers.

That organization, in a 2020 study, revealed that of the 240 million 911 calls made each year, conservative estimates show at least 10% involve people with serious mental illness and a third to a half involve those with some type of disability. These conditions can include bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or major depressive disorder. Too many incidents have led to escalations and tragedies rather than peaceful resolutions, the association said.

In other words, it really is about using the right tool for the job.

Let’s not fool ourselves. Many public policy decision makers have a renewed interest in social support programs less out of compassion than out of the fiscal realities of overcrowded jails and congested judicial systems. But if you learn anything in politics, it’s that your allies don’t always have to agree on reasoning if everyone is nonetheless seeking the same solutions.

Some social work groups suggest it’s ethically wrong for social workers and police officers to work so closely. If people don’t trust police, why trust the social workers if they become too closely associated with law enforcement? Building trust, a primary goal of social workers, can be hard if they show up with armed officers whose presence can heighten anxieties.

But this new enthusiasm for more carefully segmenting the duties and expectations placed on law enforcement officers has to start somewhere. Springdale and Fayetteville have taken admirable first steps and it appears everyone involved sees greater possibilities for the future.

“Even the most skeptical officers want to know when they are going to be coming back,” Capt. Wright told our reporter.

Let’s hope it’s soon and that it’s a sign of welcome change that will save lives and improve the quality of our communities’ responses to social ills that aren’t always resolved by incarceration.