Out of Haverhill, Massachusetts, their police department is asking the city to hire a therapist/social worker to ride along with their officers. The goal is for this therapist to ride along with police to any of their calls that involve mental or emotional distress and help defuse the situation at hand. The demand for social workers/therapists to ride along with police and tackle these mental health calls comes after this past year's national outcry over racial injustice where in some incidents mental illness played a big part such as with the Ricardo Munoz incident out of Lancaster, PA that resulted in death after Munoz in a psychotic episode chased the police with a knife down the sidewalk. Incidents such as that one with Munoz having a mental health episode, have unfortunately ended in death at the hands of police where they are forced to protect themselves and others. As a solution, the public has demanded more social workers/therapists work alongside police in these scenarios, as the public thinks it will prevent more deaths at the hands of police. Haverhill PD is listening to the public's demands as Police Chief Alan DeNaro told the AP: "Mental health technicians getting involved on the streets is something the public has demanded."
Do you think this is a good idea? Is it a smart move by Haverhill PD? I say if you think it'll help why not. I'm not the police expert here as I do not work in the field but clearly Haverhill Police Chief Alan DeNaro 1) thinks it will help or 2) is appeasing the public or 3) Both. While I'm not the expert, what I do know is that police are specially trained to deal with mental health issues so lets not pretend they are completely helpless attending to these calls. I fully believe and actually know that police do try to mediate and defuse situations...they are indeed trained in that and especially in tense situations that could involve weapons. I'm not sure if therapists are trained in mental health scenarios that involve weapons, presumably yes seeing as how mental health issues can escalate to dangerous scenarios that include self infliction as well as affliction to others so I'd like to think the potential therapist here does have special skills that could help de-escalate this scenario. That certainly is a plus and the more individuals here trained tackling this scenario the better. I honestly am concerned of the therapist getting in the way or in the crossfires if this scenario takes a turn for the worse. Maybe that's pessimistic of me but imagine the counseling does not work and the individual needing to be talked down tries to attack the therapist or their efforts sets them off, and they go on a rampage, what if that therapist now gets injured or killed? I certainly hope not and I suppose that's of course why the police are there to protect the therapist but unfortunately they still might be in a scenario where they need to use their weapon and it's still the same old story. I suppose at the end of the day I'd rather the police employ that extra help from a therapist and hope it makes a difference rather than go without. More is better than nothing so I can see where Police Chief Alan DeNaro is coming from and it's obviously his decision as I personally think it is up to the individual towns and police departments to decide if they think that position is needed in their town or city. Haverhill is a larger city in the Merrimack Valley that has lots of calls and deals with more issues than some other towns based on their larger population and other factors so they might find it helpful whereas Boxford, MA as an example, does not.
By the way, this is not a new idea of hiring mental health therapists to work alongside police. Various larger cities such as Boston, have adopted this method when dealing with mental health issues. It can be helpful and smart for sure. I don't think it's needed for all departments but certainly not a bad idea for those larger cities that deal with these type of calls more frequently.
What are your thoughts regarding Haverhill's request and therapists working alongside police in general?
-Producer Lightning