Meet the unarmed response team taking on crime in Boston

[Totem Polar]

Job Requirements
• Master's degree in Human Services field (LMHC, LMFT, LCSW) license required
• Experience of 3-5 years in an acute mental health setting, working with individuals having persistent severe mental illness
• Experience of providing compassionate care to under-served and vulnerable populations

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities
• Knowledge of growth & development milestones over the life span, and ability to provide age-appropriate care
• Cultural competency
• Ability to work independently and within a team setting
• Ability to quickly engage clients in a therapeutic relationship
• Proficiency in the identification & treatment of mental and addiction disorders, within a strength-based framework
• Ability to gather, interpret, and analyze client data
• Knowledge and skills in trauma informed care and motivational interviewing
• Strong interpersonal skills /ability to communicate clearly and concisely in verbal and written communication
• Ability to work collaboratively with clients and their families, and in partnership with treatment team
• Training in the use and side effects of psycho-pharmacology
• Ability to provide case presentations to medical and psychiatric staff
• Knowledge of local resources and how to link clients with services
• Familiarity with models for community policing
• Understand law enforcement culture with its procedures and general orders
• Familiarity with CIT training
• Knowledge of Indiana mental health statutes, especially Immediate Detentions and Emergency Detentions
• Teaching and public speaking abilities
• Sufficient computer literacy to utilize various documentation platforms
• CPR, CPI, and basic first aid
• NIMS training 100 and 200 levels

The people I know with those sorts of creds all tend towards working 22-28 hours per week, spending tons of time with their kids and driving newer, reliable cars.

It’s not just the peak money potential: who would want to put up with street-level shit, when you can make 75K working 26 client hours a week and have time to be in the running/mug club, the pick-up basketball league, or the vintage bike club, and still be at all your kid’s activities?

I believe the “zero applicants” stat. I really do. /Somethingsarenotproblemstobesolvedbutfactstobelive dwith

[peterb]

That's a long list of requirements and experience needed to get in. Anyone with 3-5 years of experience in those fields is going to get $65-85k/year for a 9-5 job. So, you guys are starting at $100k, right? (That's rhetorical, I know the answer).

As these programs evolve it’ll be interesting to see what qualifications turn out to important and useful. From what I’ve read, some programs are leaning more to the “street smart” side and trying to recruit peer addiction counselors, former homeless, etc. instead of academics. Ideally you’d have both but that’s a tall order.

[RevolverRob]

The people I know with those sorts of creds all tend towards working 22-28 hours per week, spending tons of time with their kids and driving newer, reliable cars.

It’s not just the peak money potential: who would want to put up with street-level shit, when you can make 75K working 26 client hours a week and have time to be in the running/mug club, the pick-up basketball league, or the vintage bike club, and still be at all your kid’s activities?

I believe the “zero applicants” stat. I really do. /Somethingsarenotproblemstobesolvedbutfactstobelive dwith

I'm in the wrong fucking field.

Except I hate dealing with other people's shit. So...maybe not? Except I am, because I'm dealing with other people's academic crap instead...and getting paid less and working more.

[NEPAKevin]

Years ago, we watched a Canadian show called "Cracked" that was about a cop show about a unit specifically tasked with dealing with the mentally challenged which had embedded psychiatrists and the additional twist that the team's leader himself had "issues." I don't see anything on video other than the trailer



Not sure if this was just a TV show or if they already to the social worker thing in other countries.

[Joe in PNG]

That's a tough one too, but some places seem to be taking it more seriously. We have a referendum coming up in the Nov elections here on whether or not to extend property taxes in the county to improve EMT services. There is a lot of back and forth on it. On the one hand, the opponents argue that there exists a fund that is supposed to pay for this and they allege the county commissioners aren't using it correctly. On the other, the county commissioners have demonstrated to some degree that their existing fund doesn't allow them to pay competitive wages and extend services to meet the increased need in the county. There are some good debates going on about this and it seems like the conversations being had may ultimately result in some changes. I suspect the referendum will pass; but I also think the county commissioner who appears most eager to get his hands on some extra cash for pet projects and is hoping to get it out of these funds may lose his seat.

I'll likely vote for the referendum, the property tax extension (it's simply extending current tax rates, which are elevated over the base, for 4 more years) don't seem to be breaking anyone from a financial perspective (there is a very low foreclosure rate here in the area). And there is a need to expand services. If competitive pay can be offered getting better emergency services and especially EMT is worth it to me.

It's the age old government problem- cut the actual essential government services (teachers, cops, firefighters) in order to pass more taxes, then use that money for bureaucratic empire building and patronage pork. Rinse, repeat- after all, if you can always get money for an aqueduct, you'll never get a good aqueduct (to paraphrase Hemingway).

[Bolt_Overide]

Is the intent to send these folks out in addition to sworn officers or in leu? Admittedly I have zero idea of what being on the job entails, but both ideas seem to have some serious drawbacks to me. Wouldn't a better idea be hiring more sworn officers with psych backgrounds and spreading them out?

[Yung]

https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local...ogram/2427204/

Mayor Thomas McGee has been working with the Lynn Racial Justice Coalition for the last year to pursue a series of reforms to address systemic racism and equitable public safety for all
--
Mayor Kim Janey has asked Health and Human Services and the Boston Police Department to design a similar pilot program, with the goal of increasing the role of mental health workers, decreasing the role of police in responding to mental health crises and connecting residents who have a mental illness with resources and treatment.
--
Lynn funded its own team when Mayor Thomas McGee included $500,000 line item for it in his budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which was passed by the City Council on June 22.

Lynn officials are using preliminary research by students from the Northeastern University Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy as a starting point, according to a post from the mayor. The city is commissioning a consultant to work with the Lynn Racial Justice Coalition and other officials to implement the changes in phases.

McGee has been working with the Lynn Racial Justice Coalition for the last year to pursue a series of reforms to address systemic racism and equitable public safety for all. To that end, the coalition reported that they’ve taken a number of actions to achieve that goal:

- Updated the Lynn Police Department's Use of Force Policy, which included the addition of body cameras starting in April.
- Hired the city's first-ever diversity, equity and inclusion officer.
- The $500,000 for an the unarmed crisis response team.
- Considering the establishment of a Civilian Review Board for police.

Officials are considering the civilian review board in response to calls from city leaders to investigate allegations of misconduct by Lynn police, including domestic violence and use of racial slurs.

https://www.itemlive.com/2020/06/29/...-force-policy/

LYNN POLICE DEPARTMENT REVISES USE OF FORCE POLICY
BY GAYLA CAWLEY| June 29, 2020
--
- Officer’s duty to intervene: should they observe a situation in which they perceive more than the necessary force being deployed by a fellow officer.
- Requiring officers to give a verbal warning before any level of force: provided they have the opportunity to do so. - This was already a standard practice that is now officially in writing.
- Restricting chokeholds: The use of chokeholds or strangleholds is not included in the training of Lynn Police officers due to the risk of serious injury or death. The use of chokeholds is strictly prohibited, unless the use of deadly force is warranted under MPTC guidelines.
- Training officers in de-escalation: This is already included in recruits’ training and in the MPTC use-of-force model in the department’s use-of-force policy. Going forward, officers will receive additional de-escalation training annually, as required by the MPTC.
- Requiring officers to use a use-of-force continuum: starting with nonlethal or less lethal strategies, which is an existing policy.
- Requiring officers to exhaust all reasonable alternatives before using deadly force: This is an existing policy based on the MPTC use of force guidelines.
- Comprehensive reporting of both actual and threatened use of force: All officers are required to complete a use of force report for each instance where any level of force is used.

The joint announcement for the policy revisions comes at a time when the Lynn Police Department has launched an internal investigation following the arrests of three black men on Brightwood Terrace on June 15.
The three men are calling for what they consider unlawful charges to be dropped. They claim they were “unlawfully arrested, assaulted, and falsely charged” by Lynn Police officers who were sent to investigate a noise complaint at one of their homes.
After the investigation began, a Lynn Police officer voluntarily resigned from the force, according to a department statement.
Hundreds of people gathered on the Lynn Common last Friday for a protest centered around the arrests.

https://lynnma.gov/cityhall_document..._08_2021.shtml

Mayor Thomas McGee Announces Hiring of Faustina Cuevas as the City of Lynn’s First Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer | May 13, 2021
http://www.lynntv.org/blog/mayor-tho...r-may-13-2021/

[Totem Polar]

Christ, some of these mayors and city councils are going to make Greg Ellifritz look like a turbo-charged Nostradamus.

[BehindBlueI's]

Is the intent to send these folks out in addition to sworn officers or in leu? Admittedly I have zero idea of what being on the job entails, but both ideas seem to have some serious drawbacks to me. Wouldn't a better idea be hiring more sworn officers with psych backgrounds and spreading them out?

I've no idea what Boston is doing. We've got a fairly robust program that partners with a hospital and crisis center that teams up a sworn officer (in "soft" attire, polo/khaki sort of thing), a medic, and a clinician as one unit. As stated, we're having issues getting enough clinicians.

The mental health aspect of policing continues to grow. CIT training for uniformed officers was a start, but has been inadequate for the increasing realization that a lot of time police matters are more mental health problems than law enforcement problems. We're trying to put together a program now that offers therapy sessions to domestic battery suspects. The criminal case still moves forward independently, but so many of them fall apart because of victim recants/refusals to cooperate that we're trying to approach it from the other side as well. Addiction issues are huge, of course. The "defund the police" movement is not entirely wrong in their message, they are just incredibly ignorant as to how to actually implement their ideas that are worthwhile...which ultimately require police as well. Of course some just want to watch the world burn and removing the police allows for anarchy. On our side, we've got to get over the 'law enforcement officer' mentality and back to the 'police' mentality. Law enforcement is an important part of what we do, but it's just a part. Both sides need to remember that.

[peterb]

The "defund the police" movement is not entirely wrong in their message, they are just incredibly ignorant as to how to actually implement their ideas that are worthwhile...which ultimately require police as well.

Last fall a group in the area made a “defund the police” proposal to a nearby city. I was impressed at the amount of research they’d done — it was not simply “cops bad”.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1W_g...3fEz2GOCb/view

The police chief said that he was all in favor of more funding for social services — but not at the expense of his budget. ;-)

I emailed the group who made the proposal and asked what metrics they’d use to show that their plan was succeeding. They said they were still working on that.