Around your home, it is obvious that different tools are good for different jobs. A screwdriver performs a very different function to a saw, and they are both very different to a stapler.
Too often, law enforcement officials are forced to do jobs that would be better performed by other people. Here’s some wonderful news from Denver in Colorado, USA, of an attempt to use the right tool for the job:
A concerned passerby dialed 911 to report a sobbing woman sitting alone on a curb in downtown Denver.
Instead of a police officer, dispatchers sent Carleigh Sailon, a seasoned mental health professional with a penchant for wearing Phish T-shirts, to see what was going on.
The woman, who was unhoused, was overwhelmed and scared. She’d ended up in an unfamiliar part of town. It was blazing hot and she didn’t know where to go. Sailon gave the woman a snack and some water and asked how she could help. Could she drive her somewhere? The woman was pleasantly surprised.
“She was like, ‘Who are you guys? And what is this?’” Sailon said, recounting the call.
Call police for a woman who is changing clothes in an alley? A new program in Denver sends mental health professionals instead.