CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Mental health advocates and some aldermen are speaking out against the Lightfoot Administration’s plan to limit when police respond to people having mental crises.
Arturo Carillo, who leads the Collaborative for Community Wellness, said Mayor Lightfoot’s pilot program, teaming police with mental health professionals, will still lead to too many cases when people in crisis are confronted with force.
"During this budget, we have the opportunity to do something different, in establishing a system that does not criminalize social needs and mental health of our city's residents," he said.
Leticia Villareal Sosa, a mental health researcher and professor at Dominican University agrees with those who say often, the very presence of police officers during someone’s mental health crisis can escalate things.
"When police are called to respond to a mental health crisis, there can be retraumatization with the potential for tragic consequences," she said.
Related
Alderwoman Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez said Eugene, Oregon has a program which primarily sends only mental health professionals to the scene and rarely is there physical confrontation, and she said that is the kind of response Chicago should consider.
"They have been doing this for 31 years. They take over 20 percent of police calls and they have only had to call back up in less than one percent of those instances, and that's the data over 31 years," she said.
Police officials said their ultimate goal is to have police handle fewer of those calls, and mental health professionals alone would go.