CHICAGO — Most 911 calls Chicago residents made in 2022 focused on car accidents, mental or physical health issues or noise complaints — not shots fired or other violence, a report that looked at more than 1 million calls to the city’s emergency number found.
Experts say that data bolsters the need for more alternative policing programs, and more support for those already in place, to meet residents’ needs in Chicago and across the country.
The report, “Alternatives to Policing: How US Cities Are Advancing Community Safety by Taking a Multidisciplinary Approach,” looked at more than 4 million 911 calls from 2022 in Chicago and other cities across the country. The study, authored by Communities United Chicago and three other groups, was discussed Thursday in a virtual news conference.
Roxanne Smith, an Austin resident and member of Communities United, said her son, who had Fragile X syndrome, had an anxiety attack one day. He ran out of the house to the church Smith was at, about a block away, in sweatpants and house shoes in the middle of winter, seeking her help, she said at the news conference.
It was the first time something like that had happened and she called 911 for “help to calm him down,” she said.
In response, six police cars and multiple ambulances showed up. Officers barged into the church, and threw her son on the ground and they handcuffed him which didn’t make sense since “it was already explained that he’s having an anxiety attack,” she said.
The experience showed that officers “need to have sensitivity, they need to have de-escalation going on,” Smith said. Her son later died due to causes unrelated to the police action.
“They need to be trained for that or … get somebody else to come in there who knows how to handle this situation.
“There are ways to do this that are better,” Smith said later. “We need to come to a happy medium to get this done because change is necessary – if nothing changes, nothing changes. If you want a better result, you have to do something different.”
The Chicago Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.
Marisol Cantu, a community leader with the Richmond, California group Reimagine Richmond that helped commission the report, pointed to the use of excessive force, the prison system and the killings of Black and Brown people by police as reasons to move beyond a “one size fits all” approach to policing.
“It’s not feasible and it’s not sustainable for the millions of calls that are coming in, that are actually low-level calls, that are wellness checks, that are mental health calls,” Cantu said. “It really gets to the idea that there needs to be customized community safety … and so what we see is really communities naming their safety needs, and fighting for those in communities.”
Most of the 911 calls studied were unrelated to urgent safety needs — only 4 percent of the calls across the eight cities studied were for what the Federal Bureau of Investigations classifies as violent offenses or reports of gunshots. Other cities included in the report were Los Angeles, Denver, Baltimore, Phoenix, Cincinnati, Richmond, Virginia and Nashville, Tennessee.
More than 36 percent of calls — or about 1.4 million — were focused “on low-level or health-related incidents such as traffic or parking issues, auto accidents, mental or physical health issues, abandoned cars, barking dogs, and loud music, fireworks, or other noise complaints,” researchers found.
“This analysis demonstrates that by relying so heavily on armed police who specialize in the use of force to address everything from noise complaints to serious violent crimes, we are missing out on obvious opportunities to advance community well-being,” researchers wrote.
The Chicago-based portion of the report was compiled statistics from the Office of Inspector General on the types of calls made most often. Of the nearly 1.2 million calls analyzed, a little over 26 percent were for interpersonal violence and conflict, such as domestic disturbances or violence, battery, assault or shots fired.
Another roughly 19 percent were for quality of life concerns like music or noise disturbances, abandoned cars or theft, burglary and breaking and entering. Calls for mental, physical and behavioral health concerns made up nearly 18 percent of calls while vehicular violations, accidents and concerns made up over 17 percent.
Security concerns, like those related to an alarm or a suspicious person, car or object, made up another 16 percent of 911 calls while those for general investigations or looking into a missing, wanted or found person or property were another 4.3 percent of calls.
An analysis of 911 calls published by Block Club Chicago in February found that rapid response officers assigned specifically to servicing 911 calls, were actually spending the majority of their time conducting traffic stops.
The officers conducted at least 36,000 traffic stops in the first half of 2023, accounting for nearly two-thirds of their logged activity, according to data from the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications.
The report released Thursday identified non-police emergency response teams, violence intervention programs and having unarmed city employees respond to traffic issues, accidents or theft and property damage reports as alternatives cities could implement.
Plans like those have recently been discussed, outlined or implemented in cities around the country, including Minneapolis, Phoenix and Los Angeles.
In Chicago, alternatives include the Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement, or CARE, a program that aims to have behavioral health professionals respond in mental health crises; Service Coordination and Navigation, or SCaN, to reduce youth involvement in violence; and a plan to create the city’s first sobering center, an alternate destination for people to recover from substances.
Smith said she spoke to Mayor Brandon Johnson while he was still a Cook County commissioner about issues related to alternative policing and expressed optimism for implementing other response models. The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“I believe that there is hope for us to do this, that we’re able to talk with him and have a round table discussion in order to implement these things because they are needed,” Smith said.
Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast:
Tags: Chicago Calls Dont Urgent Police Response Report Shows
-
