With unanimous support from the Healdsburg city council, the Healdsburg Police Department is going to pursue a major police department reorganization and reallocation of funds in order to create a community equity team with a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) and an officer. The goal of the program is to improve community outreach, specifically within marginalized communities and to create a police culture centered around equity and fairness.
“This is changing the basic, fundamental mindset of how we do our job,” said Healdsburg Police Chief Kevin Burke.
The change, which has to return to the city council for ratification, would start with a two-year pilot program and would be made possible by leaving the two vacant police officer positions empty in order to free up funds for the new position.
“It is not normal for a police chief to come in and say, ‘Cut away these two positions and do something different with them,’ but that is exactly what I am proposing,” Burke said.
Burke envisions a team that has the appropriate expertise to respond to calls on homelessness, mental health and other calls where a LCSW response would be a more effective and equitable approach.
As Burke put it, “Our model now is only so effective.”
For instance, if a resident called the department with concerns about their child’s mental health, the LCSW team could respond and provide proactive mental health aid, or if there was a call about an unlicensed vendor selling fruit on the street, the team could offer aid and connect them with helpful resources.
“Our police officers are not social workers so why are treating them and sending them on calls constantly that ask them to almost be like that? Sometimes a uniformed, armed, traditionally trained police officer is just not the best resource to handle certain things,” Burke said.
Burke explained the components of the proposal during his presentation on police policy at the June 15 Healdsburg City Council meeting.
“There are two main components. One is to employ community equity as a core value in the police department. If you look at some police procedures they are very neutral, and one of the things I’ve been hearing from communities that feel marginalized is, even if the policy is neutral and even if the practices themselves are neutral, the impact of them isn’t neutral. So what we are trying to do is come up with a model — and there is no model for this — to weave community equity as a core value within all of our procedures,” Burke said. “The next point is to redirect our funding to a community equity team as a pilot program. The concept is that the 18th position (one of the vacant officer roles) would be a full time, licensed clinical social worker that would work out of the police department. We’d take that person and partner them with one of our police officers.”
Burke said this team would be the experts on equity, fairness, unconscious bias and would also be able train department staff on these items to better inform what officers do on a daily basis. He also sees the team being able to train all city staff.
They’d also take the lead on community outreach with an emphasis on marginalized communities. Outreach could take the form of holding town meetings with the goal of discussing current challenges and making police protocol recommendations based on community input.
“Having this dialogue and getting really specific about what the expectations are, in particular from marginalized portions of our community, would be a significant component,” Burke said.
The selection process for a LCSW would include a community interview panel composed of a majority of non-city employees, and a bilingual/multicultural applicant would specifically be sought for the position.
Their compensation would be equal to that of a sworn police officer and they’d receive a 7% bonus. Normally a specialized position like a K-9 unit or detective would receive a 5% bonus .
“We want to demonstrate that this is a position of value to the organization, and it is of value to the city,” Burke said.
If the pilot program is implemented the department would then provide a report to council on their progress 12 months after its inception.
Burke spoke excitedly about the proposal throughout the presentation and said, “I think that if you want long-lasting change in the culture of law enforcement in America today, that has to come within the police department versus something that is dictated.”
Those who spoke during the public comment period voiced support for the proposal.
Resident Jenny Levine Smith urged the council to listen to Burke’s proposal and spoke in favor of the idea.
“I want to speak in support of Chief Burke’s comments and to make the point that, without action, these comments are empty. Chief, I think the way you are speaking on this issue is so spot on. You are clearly and honestly evaluating the way in which the system is broken, or was built to only serve some of us at the expense of the rest of us … I deeply appreciate your introspection on the ways in which you, as the head of the police department locally, understand that you may be the only option to be called, but not the best one for the needs of the community.”
Councilmembers were also receptive to the idea. Councilmember Joe Naujokas said he appreciates the department for thinking outside the box.
“I am happy we are having this conversation,” Naujokas said. “I wish it came through a different path, but here we are. I love the proposal for the community social worker on so many levels. What I love about this is that you are looking at the issues that we are facing. And I really commend you for looking at this in an out-of-the-box way. It really extends the concept of community policing.”
With clear consensus given from council for Burke to move forward with the plan, the proposal will likely return to council at a future date for approval.
