Pittsburgh changing the way social workers respond to incidents with Public Safety

A program that pairs social workers with Pittsburgh police to intervene in certain incidents has been full of stops and starts. Now faced with limited resources, the program is changing again.

The city says it's making the program more efficient, but critics say it's going back to square one. 

In the wake of the George Floyd protests, the city proposed a new kind of policing, having social workers ride with police officers to respond to incidents involving people who were mentally ill, homeless or struggling with addiction. But five years later, it's still a fledgling program with few social workers on the street.

"I thought they expected to be somewhere around 18 by now, but they don't have that, you know, they have four," said Beth Pittinger with the Pittsburgh Citizen Police Review Board. 

With meager resources to confront the worsening mental health crisis, the Public Safety department says it wants to maximize its effectiveness. From now on, instead of riding with police, the social workers will ride together, responding to scenes not only involving police but also situations involving the fire bureau and EMS.

"This is just an expansion and a very smart efficient way of managing those limited resources," said assistant director Camila Alarcon-Chelecki.

Critics say for a program that has been plagued by stops and starts, the change represents yet another stop. Instead of a co-response as it was initially conceived, it would be a secondary response model, where the social workers would respond after police have been on the scene. Pittinger says responding defeats the purpose of the unit.

"When you're coming 15, 20, a half hour later, you've missed your opportunity to be effective. So what's the point at that juncture?" she said.  

"Now, today, because that unit was disbanded, we're right back to where we were before there was any talk about having a crisis response available," she added. 

Alarcon-Chelecki says police need to arrive first to secure a scene before allowing the social workers to intercede. Under the new system, the workers can then stay on the scene and then allow the officers to move on to other calls. 

"We saw that a lot of times, we're staying on the scene for almost four hours, and in those situations, there is no need, it's a public health, behavioral health, it's not a public safety emergency, so why are we tying up those resources?" Alarcon-Chelecki said. 

But while public safety wants to expand the program, Mayor Gainey's preliminary budget proposal keeps staffing at current levels.

"I really hope that we can continue to grow the program," Alarcon-Chelecki said. 

Whether it be a co-response or a secondary one, the Public Safety department says it needs more personnel to make the program a success and is currently in talks with the mayor's office to get more funding in next year's budget.