Kentucky town hires social workers instead of more officers - and the results are surprising

https://www.wave3.com/2020/07/28/kentucky-town-hires-social-workers-instead-more-officers-results-are-surprising/?fbclid=IwAR3eZioGaN3Q8PQbCI8NBWcIVsaUbzyYa3TcU4jZ561esLFGorNFaxO5ZKk


By David Mattingly | July 28, 2020 at 4:55 PM EDT - Updated July 29 at 7:42 PM


The goal was to provide expertise and immediately connect people in crisis to needed services.

“I’m more the second responder, so the officer responds first,” police social worker Kelly Pompilio said. “There are times that I do go on scene with the officer but that’s only after it’s secured and safe for me to enter. But I try to assist the family in whatever services they need so they don’t have to, whenever they’re having a crisis, or having a situation where they need law enforcement, they don’t have to call 911.”

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After four years on the job, Pompilio said there has been a significant drop in repeat 911 calls with approximately 15 percent fewer people going to jail.

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“It was close to a $45,000 to $50,000 annual savings from hiring a police officer the first time to hiring a social worker,” Ward said. “They (police social workers) started solving problems for people in our community and for our agency that we’ve never been able to solve before.”

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Alexandria doubled down on its commitment and now employs two full-time social workers to work and respond with its 17 officers.

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