One year into its implementation, the Albuquerque Community Safety (ACS) Department is gaining traction in addressing street-level mental health, addiction and homeless related crises— much to the relief of the city’s besieged police and fire departments.
As a city cabinet-level agency, the ACS is the first in the nation to provide a non-law enforcement response to non-emergency incidents involving homelessness, mental health, and substance abuse incidents—dramatically freeing up both law enforcement and fire department resources.
“ACS is an alternative to policing,” says Mariela Ruiz-Angel, director. “The deputy chief of police told me his officers are not social workers.”
The first-year service data is compelling.
Through June of this fiscal year ACS has responded to 10,909 calls for service. Between April and June, they responded to 393 behavioral health issues and 130 suicide-related crises. The overwhelming amount of their calls involve the homeless, responding to 1,042 issues related to unsheltered people.
Ruiz-Angel cautions these numbers do not adequately measure the impact the services have had on the community yet.
“We have to look beyond one year,” she says.
With these high call numbers comes the need to quickly expand the current staff of 64 responders. Ruiz-Angel says the department is actively recruiting Community Responders, Behavioral Health responders, and administrative staff.
The city’s homeless population is estimated to be over...
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