By Eliyahu Kamisher, The Appeal, April 20, 2021
The Oakland City Council in California is expected tofinalize approval today for a pilot program that would replace police with trained civilian responders for a host of 911 calls that often involve people struggling with mental health issues and homelessness.
The year-long pilot called MACRO—Mobile Assistance Community Responders of Oakland—is still in its infancy. It is expected to take months before being implemented in an area in East Oakland, but activists say the pilot is a major step toward eliminating law enforcement responses to 911 calls that risk escalation into police shootings of people experiencing homelessness or mental health crises.
“We don’t want [police] involved in these calls because we’re sick of the death count,” said Cathy Leonard, a member of the Coalition for Police Accountability, which has been pushing the city for a MACRO-like program since 2019. “We need resident-centered responses.”
Comments (0)