Tacoma Study Suggests Diverting Non-Emergency Calls To Civilians

TACOMA, WA — A study commissioned by the City of Tacoma has found that thousands of emergency calls could be handled by trained civilians instead of police officers.

As the News Tribune first reported, the Report on the Alternative Response Study, submitted to the city late last month, concluded that up to 7,829 non-emergency calls for assistance — around 9.4 percent of the Tacoma Police Department's total 911 calls — could have instead been handled by trained civilians. Handing those responsibilities off would also increase officer's patrol proactive time around seven percent, the study found.

"In recent years, more and more has been asked of police officers," the study reads. "Police have been called to function as social services in responding to issues of homelessness, intervene in situations involving persons experiencing mental health crisis, and serve numerous other roles beyond what was expected in the past. At the same time, service level expectations have not diminished. Perhaps more than ever, police have been asked to respond to minor, non-emergency calls such as non-injury accidents, and calls that simply do not need to be not law enforcement matters."

The study was completed by Matrix Consulting Group. It was commissioned by the city for $42,000, the Associated Press reports. It concludes by recommending that the city hire 10 new "civilian community service officer" positions within the police department to field those non-emergency calls. Including a supervisor position, that would cost the city about $1,009,811 annually. It also would require the city consult with South Sound 911 on how to best reroute those non-emergency calls.

The study focused largely on the city's response to homelessness-related issues and mental health crises. Researchers say they found the current system lacking:

"The study finds that current approaches to respond to homelessness related issues, including encampment enforcement, do not achieve desired service outcomes, such as placement into short-term housing and treatment, placement into long-term housing, reduction in law enforcement contacts, and improved mortality for unsheltered homeless populations."

The consultants conclude the city should create a new crisis response teams independent of the Tacoma Police Department. Those teams would be comprised of designated clinical responders and EMTs, and could respond to mental health crises while still being able to detain individuals for involuntary psychiatric holds, though the findings note there would still be situations where police officers would need to be involved.

They also recommend that homelessness outreach programs be handed entirely by Tacoma's Neighborhood and Community Services Department (NCS), instead of the Tacoma Police Department's Homeless Outreach Team.

Finally, the study considers the police department's homeless encampment sweeps, which consultants say may benefit nearby businesses in the short term, but are not working to reduce homelessness long term:

"The vast majority of those cleared from the encampment will remain as unsheltered homeless, as most individuals refuse services. Thus, there is high likelihood that the individuals will relocate to a new location to set up an encampment."

To better improve the response to homeless encampments, the consultants conclude that the city will need to log more data about the encampments, including how many people are living at each encampment and when community outreach is conducted.

>> Read the full Report on the Alternative Response Study