New Orleans health officials want the city council to fund mental health and other social services, to make cops more effective at their jobs.
It's similar to what you may have heard from the "de-fund the police" movement, except New Orleans officials haven't gone so far as to say resources should be taken from police. On the contrary, they want to do this to help cops be more effective.
"Its goal is to provide 24-7 mobile crisis outreach teams to respond to appropriate, non-violent mental health-related calls for service," New Orleans Health Department director Dr. Jennifer Avegno told members of the New Orleans City Council.
Dr. Avegno said the city's 911 system currently gets thousands of calls like this per year that often fall to the NOPD.
"We estimate, based on 2019 numbers, there's about 3,000 at least," said Avegno.
A fully-funded and staffed response unit could take a lot of pressure off of police.
"Again, so NOPD officers can focus on what they need to be doing and we can provide appropriate care to those in need," said Avegno.
Dr. Avegno says the state will be watching to see how New Orleans does, to see if the city's methods can be applied elsewhere.
