By Caitlin Yoshiko Kandil | Christian Century
Published in January of 2021
SUMMARY: As the United States grapples with ways to reduce police violence CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets), a community based public safety program in Eugene, OR that responds to crises involving mental illness, homelessness, and addiction may be the what cities around the country need. The CAHOOTS workers are equal part medic (a nurse, paramedic or EMT) and crisis prevention worker with at least 500 hours of training. The workers are not armed and are designed to respond to non-violent crisis situations and non-emergent medical issues.
KEY QUOTE: “Violence is central to policing. And you can’t get away from that—that policing is essentially the management of the distribution of violence. I think we need to broaden that definition of what makes the public safe,” she said. “When you say ‘public safety’ most of the time, people just think of the police. But no, that’s not necessarily the only thing that makes people safe.”
BONUS: We have a thread on Twitter dedicated to articles about cities approaching policing in a different way.
DIG DEEPER: We have curated four guided learning paths to help you think distinctly Christian about policing.
Read the full article at Christian Century
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ARTICLE: When Will America Take What We Know About Racist Policing Seriously?
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ARTICLE: How Can We Enhance Police Accountability in the United States?
Every forty hours a Black man is killed in America by police. The seemingly endless onslaught of violence against Black bodies makes it readily apparent that there must be changes to the policing culture. Author Rashawn Ray says there are two reforms we should make to change police accountability. One, officers fired for police misconduct…
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