Set up emergency response incident team

The problems with hiring for local law enforcement agencies has been building for some time and many agencies are understaffed at this point (“Marin law enforcement agencies navigate recruiting challenges,” Feb. 22). The concept, which has worked successfully in other jurisdictions, is to create a countywide critical incident team to respond to issues with psychiatric emergencies, homelessness or alcohol and drug intoxication incidents.

Several counties team up a paramedic with a social worker (others put a social worker with a police officer) to respond to emergencies. Sometimes the emergency call is for someone known to police and social service agencies — someone who is not perceived to be a danger to themselves or others. If it is a “first time” call and the circumstances are unclear, it may require both police and the incident team to show up.

Other communities have found this approach decreases the time that police are tied up with noncriminal cases that are not a threat to the public and the incident team will often resolve the situation and be able to make follow-up plans when appropriate. This program could relieve officers of activities for which they are not trained to handle and leave them available for responding to serious criminal cases or accidents.

I am a retired emergency department physician and I managed my share of psychiatric emergencies, but I found responding to them to be stressful and exhausting. I was always glad to see a social worker or psychologist show up to take over. I believe utilizing a critical incident team would be a cost effective use of limited resources.