Radical Social Workers has started an important conversation, and the BPD encourages Burlingtonians to become a part of it.

The ability of a community to effectively solve its problems and mitigate its crises without recourse to their police is a good indicator of its health and self-reliance. Organizing around ways to reduce police interventions is time well-spent. To this end, they've organized an event that intends to share wisdom and practice regarding alternatives to dialing 911 and having a community's police intervene in what might otherwise be a problem or issue that could be solved by non-police community members. Mental health calls, for example, are particularly vexing: people in need sometimes go untreated by providers and often unnoticed by neighbors until their crises become acute and the situation becomes dangerous. Only then are the police called as a last resort. Sometimes the outcome is tragic. The police will always be there when needed, but we would prefer to see our way out of this business and look forward to any steps that citizens could take to prevent these crises from happening in the first place.

Officers often lament that they are called upon too frequently, and called upon to do things that are best done by other citizens, NGOs and other government agencies in collaboration with each other. It is encouraging to see that community members understand this and that they are actively exploring alternatives.

For our part, we will be there it listen on Thursday. It would be great to see, as an outcome, a decrease in the number of 911 calls to police for things such as noise complaints, disputes, and mental health crisis calls. An engaged, well-organized community will make this possible, and will all benefit from it, the police included.

link to event-page---> https://www.facebook.com/events/997099427009914/

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