Full DESCRIPTION:

30 years ago, a group of people in one American city decided that they could do a better job than police at handling mental health and homelessness. So they built the solution and hundreds of thousands of 911 calls are now routed to their team. Listen and learn more. We can do this nationwide.

Only 4 percent of incidents police are dispatched to are actual violent crimes, meaning that the remaining 96 percent include traffic violations, mental health crises and calls regarding homelessness, etc. Police officers, who are really just a domestic military force, arrive on the scene armed with guns, tasers and batons. They bring violence into nonviolent situations, immediately escalating them. They arrest, brutalize and murder people who desperately need the help of trained professionals.

In the wake of the movement to defund the police, the demands for well-thought-out alternatives are growing. In today’s episode, Shaun breaks down how the CAHOOTS model of emergency response might just be the replacement for the police we’ve all been searching for.