There is a huge subset of the population, that isn’t doing well, from a mental standpoint, from an employment standpoint, and from a community standpoint. While there are myriad ways for communities to deal with the indigent and the mentally/emotionally challenged; far too often the police get involved because, for instance, some neighbor or business has contacted the police about someone’s erratic behavior or similar. The problem that thereby occurs when an officer of the law engages with someone that is unstable or out-of-sorts, is that, because police officers have enough on their hands to begin with, they are, more times than not, aren’t going to thereby put on their “social worker” hat, because they aren’t social workers; and further to the point, doing so, isn’t going to provide them with any benefit from those that they directly report to, who are primarily looking for their policing officers to bring them ticketing offenses, arrests, or something else of meaningful substance through their contact reports.
Additionally, police officers are known for demanding compliance with their commands, and those that aren’t right in their head, emotions, or in their life, aren’t going to be the type of people that do well with that, or even to truly understand the consequences of non-obedience to that which is demanding their cooperation or compliance, so of. So then, what happens, more often than is necessary, is that someone that would be far better served by social worker assistance, is instead dealt with by the police, in a manner, in which they get ticketed, arrested, or both, which does little or nothing to rectify the situation, but simply takes instead a “disturbance” off of the street.
It’s unfair to expect police officers to be social workers, and therefore to have police officers be the primary responder to that which is more of a social issue is something that should rather be more appropriately re-directed to actual social workers. This would presuppose that both police officers and social workers need to have better coordination between the two, so that those that need social assistance can be assisted by those that are professionals in that field in a timely manner. This also means that the government needs to do a better job of educating the general public that the appropriate place to call a problem or a disturbance into, is not necessarily always going to be 911.
It should be clearly kept in mind, that police officers are very good at what they are supposed to do; and those that are social and healthcare workers are very good at what they are supposed to do. Therefore, to expect police officers to be good social workers, and to expect social workers to be good at policing, is not something that is going to occur. Those that aren’t doing well mentally or emotionally, are typically going to receive better care and help from a qualified healthcare professional, and usually they don’t need to be dealt with by law enforcement. The type of patience, understanding, and empathy that those that are struggling to get their mind and emotions right with, is best dealt with by those that are well suited for that, not police officers.