Residents’ recent calls to reduce police presence and funding in Santa Cruz County come at the same time police say they are overburdened with calls for mental health care and homelessness.
Our podcast explores the aftermath of two recent, fatal police shootings in our county that involved mental health — and how harm could be avoided. Looking toward solutions, we examine a program in Oregon that dispatches mental health care workers to crises without police.
We talk to a Santa Cruz County 911 dispatcher and law enforcement leaders about the advantages and disadvantages of crisis response without police.
TRANSCRIPT
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Stephen Baxter is a co-founder of Santa Cruz Local. He is a veteran newspaper reporter who has won five awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association. He holds a master’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. His work has appeared in the San Jose Mercury News, Associated Press, CBS News “48 Hours,” MotherJones.com and the Santa Cruz Sentinel. He lives in Santa Cruz.