Fayetteville police positive about partnership with social workers

(Press-News.org) In 2021, the University of Arkansas School of Social Work partnered with the Fayetteville Police Department to pair officers with social workers trained to help people suffering mental crises. Initially, the officers were supportive of the effort but also somewhat hesitant. Now that the co-response teams are fully established, the officers say the program benefits the community and helps them carry out their duties. 

The officers’ changing attitudes to the program were reported in the latest issue of the Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology. The paper was written by U of A social work professors Mark Plassmeyer and Kim Stauss, who helped launch and continue to work with the Fayetteville Police Department on the co-response program. Melissa Gute, who completed her Master of Social Work at the U of A and now works for the police department, was also an author. 

The Crisis Intervention Response Team in Fayetteville launched with a single intern from the U of A School of Social Work. Today the police department has two teams that pair a full-time social worker with an officer and is in the process of hiring social workers for two more teams. 

“I think you are seeing the co-response programs expanding and growing, because people are seeing that not only do they help their community but also support the individual police departments in accomplishing their missions,” Stauss said. 

In Fayetteville, officers told the researchers the program reduced their workload while helping them better serve people suffering a mental health crisis. The intervention of the social workers also cut down the number of “high utilizers,” people who officers might encounter weekly or even daily. 

“Their retention has increased, which is a huge thing for police departments. Frustration has gone down,” Stauss said. 

The officers said the progressive culture of the Fayetteville Police Department and the strong support of their chief helped the co-response program succeed. 

Plassmeyer and Stauss next plan to study how people who have received services from the Crisis Intervention Response Team view the program and how aware the Fayetteville community is of the work. 

The research evaluating the Fayetteville co-response program is supported by a grant from the National Institute of Justice, the research agency of the Department of Justice. 

Police departments around Arkansas have expressed interest in creating their own version of the Fayetteville co-response teams. Plassmeyer and Stauss also spoke about the work at a recent conference of the Arkansas Association of Chiefs of Police. 

“People are trying to get these off the ground in rural areas, urban areas, suburban, you name it. I’ve noticed that a lot of people are struggling to find clinicians,” Plassmeyer said. 

Next semester, the lead social worker at the Fayetteville Police Department will teach a class at the U of A on practicing in a law enforcement environment. The School of Social Work’s online advanced-standing master’s program could also train students around the state who want to work with police departments.

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