The St. Petersburg Police Department in Florida announced Thursday that it will hire social workers to field non-violent 911 calls. It will be the first US city to replace police officers with unarmed social workers following anti-police protests by Black Lives Matter.
The department has also stated that it will not be adding 25 officers over the next 24 months as it previously said it would, according to Breitbart.
The press release said:
The City of St. Petersburg Police Department will create a new division within the police department called the Community Assistance Liaison, to expand our approach to public safety by retaining a social service agency to respond to non-violent calls for service from the public.
Starting October 1, a CAL team member will respond to the following issues in place of a police officer, involving disorderly intoxication, drug overdose, suicide crisis, mental health crisis, truancy, disorderly juveniles, panhandling, neighborhood disputes, and any complaints over the homeless.
Last year, the police received nearly 13,000 calls for those types of situations.
These social workers will be dressed in plainclothes and will not be equipped with any weapons. The move has the support of this region's police union, the Sun Coast Police Benevolent Association.
It is unknown how the police department intends to deal with highly aggressive drunken or disorderly drug abusers on substances like methamphetamine and PCP, or mentally-ill individuals who may be difficult to disarm.
“With the CAL team handling non-violent calls, uniformed officers will have more time to walk in the community and build relationships,” the report noted.
“The Police Department will lose $3,125,000 in federal grant funding awarded to pay for the new officers and $3,800,000 the City had earmarked in matching funds required by the grant. The City will instead use those funds to pay for this new service,” the press release stated.
Speaking to the press, St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway announced that "change is coming to the St. Pete Police Department."
"We’re asked sometimes to help someone raise their kid, or has a mental issue," he said. "Yes we go through a lot of training, but we don’t have enough. We’re not experts in that."
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