Raleigh could be latest city to send social workers instead of police to some 911 calls
Raleigh could become the next North Carolina city to send unarmed mental health specialists instead of police to some 911 calls.
Advocates have pushed for alternative crisis response for years. Now the city is wrapping up community meetings to give city leaders feedback. If approved, money for a new program could be included in the coming fiscal year’s budget.
A recent, public-input gathering at Shaw University was small but passionate.
Greta Martin, a social worker from Southeast Raleigh, attended but is skeptical. She has attended community-engagement events in the past and felt the city didn’t always listen.
“Every program that the city wants to involve the public in, either the information is not available to the public or, number two, it is not culturally diverse enough,” she said. “Number three, the public doesn’t feel welcome or that their voice is being heard.”
“People of color don’t feel like ‘public’ includes them,” she said.
If the city moves forward with this program it needs to be “culturally competent” and use resources and groups that are already active in the community, she said.
Nique Williams is the community engagement coordinator for Refund Raleigh, a collective that seeks “to end police violence and economic exploitation.” She attended the Shaw University event and said police are not equipped to handle mental health crises.
“It’s a social challenge that they are not adequately trained for, although it’s a part of their job description, and they have been tasked with those particular responsibilities,” she said. “It’s not meant for them. And that’s why there’s this issue of them harming folks who are in crisis.”
Refund Raleigh wants an alternative crisis response program funded in the coming budget with implementation later this year.
“We want it to be implemented based on the input that has been received [from] community members,” Williams said. “We don’t want any co-optation by the city. We want it to be fully community centered.”
Funding should come from the existing police budget, she said, adding if the city pursues a pilot before expanding city-wide, a focus should be put on Southeast Raleigh.
“We find that to be where the highest need is and where there are the greatest concerns,” she said. “Especially amongst Black, working-class people.”
More than 90 percent of the people who have participated in the city’s community engagement effort have said they would not call police for a mental health crisis. Raleigh has received about 900 survey responses and 500 in-person responses.
Advocates have looked to Durham’s HEART program as a model. Durham launched it in 2022, first as a pilot before moving citywide and 24/7. HEART, which stands for Holistic Empathetic Assistance Response Teams, is based outside of the city’s police department and seeks to reduce dangerous conflicts with police and to link people with mental health resources.
The town of Chapel Hill also sends social workers to 911 calls, but its program is part of the police department.
A new program in Raleigh would be separate from the recently created ACORNS unit, which is housed inside the police department and primarily focuses on homelessness and mental health issues. The officers in that unit do not respond to 911 calls.
How to submit feedback
The city of Raleigh held several in-person listening sessions, pop-up events and community workshops.
An open house summarizing the feedback will be presented at 11:30 a.m. March 3, at Lincoln Park Holiness Church, at 13 Heath St.
People can still take an online survey, https://publicinput.com/x0612, through March 10.
People can also call 984-352-0640 to leave feedback or email community.engagement@raleighnc.gov.
