Since 2015, one in every five people fatally shot by police in the U.S. has experienced a mental health crisis, according to tracking by The Washington Post. This fact, coupled with advocacy efforts, has led to a nationwide shift in handling emergency calls. Now, cities are deploying a new cadre of first responders, such as EMTs and social workers, to address 911 calls related to mental health, addiction, and homelessness, rather than dispatching armed officers. The Marshall Project reports.
To understand how well these programs work, reporters from Tradeoffs, with support from The Marshall Project, followed the Holistic Empathetic Assistance Response Team in Durham, N.C., as they responded to crisis calls and developed an entirely new public safety agency. The Marshall Project spoke with national experts, researchers and advocates to understand how Durham compares with the rest of the country, and on the challenges and successes for these teams nationwide. The result is “The Fifth Branch,” a three-part podcast series.
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