Voice of Business Blog

Guest post from Greater Rochester Chamber member Measures for Justice

Police departments are tasked with responding to all types of calls for service, regardless of whether they are best equipped to handle each situation. One example is when police are asked to respond to mental health crises because these interactions can escalate quickly, leading to serious injuries and even fatalities. This is why over the last four years, there have been significant efforts to reimagine traditional policing, especially regarding non-violent situations. 

The Research team at Measures for Justice has explored how law enforcement can better use resources already available in communities, the rationale being: if officers were made aware of social service agencies in proximity to a call for service, they could better direct individuals to acute care. 

Our Process

We looked at calls for service Rochester related to personal crises and categorized them based on the nature of the call, for example; mental health, domestic violence, medical, welfare, vagrancy. 

From there, we identified the community assets already available in these communities. These included shelters, food pantries, clinics, mental health centers, drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, and other organizations that specialized in providing targeted care for people needing assistance.

Finally we created a dashboard that mapped calls for service and community assets to assess any relationship between call types and the social service agencies available. 

We had questions: 

• Are there a sufficient number of rehab centers and clinics in areas where there is a high volume of drug-related calls? 
• Do areas with more vagrancy calls have accessible shelters or housing services? 
• Could a tool like this aid law enforcement in providing the proper response to people in crisis?

Our Findings

The dashboard also clued us into a disconnect between need and available resources. 

• Community assets are concentrated near urban centers and are more sparse in the suburbs and surrounding areas. 
• Neighborhoods that experience a higher volume of calls like vagrancy often do not have the social services to adequately address those issues. 

The work helps law enforcement identify opportunities to bridge service gaps by ensuring the police can pair the right resource with the right situation, which is good for individual outcomes, neighborhood safety, and business looking to support its staff and community. 

Interested in a deeper dive into the relationship between police calls for service and community assets? Read our research report.