would sending emt as first responders to mental health crises be a viable pathway to defunding the police?
In 2020 while living in New York, I participated in Coro’s Leadership New York program to develop my leadership capacity and improve New York City. The nine-month program culminated in a “City Issue Day” presentation where small teams taught the cohort about a hot-button public policy topic. My team’s focus was Criminal Justice and Public Safety; We explored the city’s pilot program seeking to reallocate funds from the NYPD by replacing police officers as first responders with mental healthcare and emergency medical technicians.
Our outcome goals were to:
- Explore the emergency mental health pilot and other alternate programs.
- Better understand the needs of people experiencing mental health crises.
- Identify the demands of the Defund the Police movement.
- Explore the effectiveness of this program and its potential for scalability into the future.
Our team gained insight from a variety of stakeholders through collaborating in multi-sector networks. This experience reinforced our understanding surrounding the complexities and challenges of addressing criminal justice and public safety problems.