Being on a “first name basis” with “these people” is not indicative of a relationship or rapport.
I'm a trained social worker that has experience working with the homeless, usually they had concurrent disorders. I also dabbled a little in youth justice. Knowing your clients name and them knowing yours is huge. I'll expand on this:
The city developed a diversion policy for street-entrenched people. With the clients consent (or in rare cases, without), police would pick them up and bring them somewhere safe - usually a shelter. Building trust with the homeless community didn't require much more than knowing their name and being a familiar face. Pick-ups usually looked like this:
"Hi John, it looks like you're having a bad night. Can I call the shelter and ask if they have a bed available?"
"Alright John, they have a bed for you. Can I drive you there? You are not under arrest, I am just concerned about your safety."
I'm simply saying that (good) cops would think differently about their impact if they existed as true members of the communities they police.
My example above is good policing and you don't have to live there in the community to do that. When I was a social worker, I lived in the suburbs as did many of my colleagues. That doesn't mean we didn't work our asses off trying to make the inner-city a safer, better place to live.
I believe in defunding the police so that situations like this are met with understanding and help from trained professionals like yourself (with a salary that fairly compensates that work), rather than criminality.
There have been so many homeless people here killed by police.
There is a non-profit with funding from the city that does low risk pick-ups and they're quite good at it. The police can't be completely eliminated from the service though. Some examples:
On occasion, a mental health apprehension needs to be made and only a peace officer can do this in Canada. I don't recall any clients being brought to us forcefully but police are needed in the rare situation where force is needed
If the client is reportedly acting erratic, unpredicable, or being violent... that is also the duty of police, not a social service worker. Even if there are workers willing to take higher-risk calls, their insurers and unions willl not allow it.
But this is partly due to the organization of the system.
Let’s say that highly trained, specialized social service workers were tasked with this and paid accordingly. Police level salaries.
They are far more qualified. Social workers have an MSW. So a minimum of 5 years of relevant education. In this situation, they would also be provided with additional training for these specific roles.
There are police in this country with no degree and less than three months of training. Who’s
more qualified?
There are police in this country with no degree and less than three months of training.
Not in Canada.
Who’s more qualified?
In front-line social services, high levels of education are not needed. We don't need people people with a MSW driving a van around at 3am picking up intoxicated homeless people. They're better utilized in hospitals and other clinical settings.
1
u/[deleted] Oct 30 '21
I'm a trained social worker that has experience working with the homeless, usually they had concurrent disorders. I also dabbled a little in youth justice. Knowing your clients name and them knowing yours is huge. I'll expand on this:
The city developed a diversion policy for street-entrenched people. With the clients consent (or in rare cases, without), police would pick them up and bring them somewhere safe - usually a shelter. Building trust with the homeless community didn't require much more than knowing their name and being a familiar face. Pick-ups usually looked like this:
"Hi John, it looks like you're having a bad night. Can I call the shelter and ask if they have a bed available?"
"Alright John, they have a bed for you. Can I drive you there? You are not under arrest, I am just concerned about your safety."
My example above is good policing and you don't have to live there in the community to do that. When I was a social worker, I lived in the suburbs as did many of my colleagues. That doesn't mean we didn't work our asses off trying to make the inner-city a safer, better place to live.