Credit: Wikimedia Commons The city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is preparing to replace police officers with unarmed social workers for some 911 calls. The city’s new Community Assistance Response and Engagement (CARE) team is expected to be operational as soon as July.
The CARE Team, which began training last September and conducting outreach since December, will be dispatched to non-violent incidents and mental health crises. Disturbingly, unlike similar programs in other cities, the CARE Team will not be accompanied by police officers, according to Boston 25 News .
While Liz Speakman, the team’s director, assures that they can “radio for assistance immediately and get back up right away” if safety concerns arise, this raises serious questions about the potential risks involved in this approach. Will social workers without any law enforcement training be equipped to handle unpredictable situations that could escalate rapidly?
Speakman claims that their team has learned from studying alternative response […]
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