That will work well. I hope the mayor, Rick Kriseman, has the opportunity to assist in some of these encounters to experience the wisdom of such a plan.
But it is not only his plan. The Chief of Police supports the plan, and will be hiring 18 to 20 (Not 25) social workers to handle the 13,000 to 14,000 non violent calls out of 260,000 total calls experienced each year in St Petersburg. These social workers will be police workers in plain cloths and will not carry weapons. According to the plan, these social workers will cover the city between 5 AM until 2 AM.
The breakdown of 13,000 non violent crimes of course is after the events are tallied. The dispatchers who take the calls don't have the advantage of knowing which calls will be non violent.
So what happens as the social worker tries to calm down an intoxicated person that suddenly turns violent. Do you get to call timeout.
Obviously , they must have this all worked out.
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