Alternative 911 system may save money, lives
The American Journal of Preventative Medicine estimates that between 20% and 50% of all fatal police shootings involved an individual with a mental health issue.
Generally speaking, people are aware that they should call 911 in an emergency, but they are less aware of alternatives to the 911 system. When a person calls 911, emergency personnel are dispatched. This often puts our police in a position where they have to deal with mental health issues or other issues where they are not fully trained on how to respond to the situation. In 2019 the Lehigh County Department of Corrections committed 5,250 people. Of those people 1,245 required a mental health evaluation; 1,154 needed to undergo medically supervised detoxification.
One potential method of changing the outcome of the number of mentally ill people going to prison and the number of people that have to directly interact with the police is to change the 911 dispatch system. This would require collaboration among local police departments, 911 dispatchers, health clinics, and perhaps even hospital networks.
There is a model that was developed in Eugene, Oregon, called Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets. The CAHOOTS model represents a longstanding and effective way of diverting 911 calls related to mental health issues away from law enforcement. CAHOOTS was started in 1989 by the White Bird Clinic, a Eugene organization that offers medical care, dental care, drug and alcohol addiction counseling and other health services.
CAHOOTS was initially created by the clinic to help the community reduce unnecessary interactions with the police. Today the program is financed by Eugene and Springfield, adjacent towns. The total amount of funding is $2 million per year or roughly 2% of the two cities’ total police budgets.
The CAHOOTS model handled approximately 17% of the total 911 volume in Eugene in 2017. It also saved the city over $8.5 million in additional public safety spending. The CAHOOTS model sends a trained emergency medical services worker, which could be a nurse or EMT, and a trained mental health professional to resolve and de-escalate situations.
They’ve successfully handled situations involving suicidal threats, mental health crises, substance abuse and interpersonal conflict. Conversely, while many often critique this model as leaving these workers vulnerable to additional violence, research suggests otherwise. In 2019, over 24,000 CAHOOTS responses were made, but only 250 required police backup. That’s a success rate of 99.375% in a single year without the need for police.
In 2015, the commonwealth of Pennsylvania passed legislation encouraging the consolidation of the last two cityrun 911 centers in the state, Allentown and Bethlehem. The funding officially terminated in 2019 when the consolidation was already largely in place.
While the new system suffered some initial growing pains associated with turnover in staff and familiarization with a new dispatch system, the predominant issues associated with the merger have been identified and addressed.
The transition provides Lehigh County with a unique opportunity to be at the forefront of one of the most important innovations in law enforcement dispatch and modern policing. With all county 911 calls funneling through a single dispatch center, we have an opportunity to divert calls related to mental health or addiction away from law enforcement and towards staff trained in these issues.
The county spends approximately $75 million on law and order. The top three expenses are the corrections facility (jail) costing around $28 million; the courts costing around $27 million and the district attorney’s office costing about $7.5 million. I believe there is an opportunity to reallocate funding of at least $2 million to start a program like CAHOOTS.
Public safety will be achieved through care instead of coercion and incarceration. These not only save society money but advance the recovery of individuals preventing future crime. In order for local dispatchers to divert calls to a nonlaw enforcement-related service, local communities either at the municipal or regional level would have to create dedicated units and lines for them to patch into.
In the most recent situation, where one of the Allentown police officers was spotted with his knee on someone’s head, this could have been avoided with a group like CAHOOTS. Lehigh County has an integral role to play in ensuring that it stands by prepared to train its staff on these diversion techniques. These calls can be the difference between life and death.
Mark Pinsley is the Lehigh County controller.