Bensalem Authorities Announce 'Humanity-Based' Program That Will Team 2 Social Workers Up With Police Officers
BENSALEM, Pa. (CBS) -- Bensalem officials announced a new program Thursday that teams up two social workers with township police on a new response initiative. Public Safety Director Fred Harran said the model of responding to calls addresses important police reform issues brought to the forefront in the past several months.
"The goal here is to keep people out of the criminal justice system that don't need to be there," Harran said. "To get people help that they desperately need because, in the United States of America, people shouldn't be homeless, people shouldn't be suffering from mental health without treatment in this great country."
The newly-hired social workers will respond to domestic, mental health, and substance abuse issues.
Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub called the two-year pilot program "humanity-based."
"People always try to put things into a neat little box and put a label on that box. I think that defies the traditional labels that you always hear," Weintraub said. "Whether this is a progressive program or this is a product of defunding the police, this is what that looks like. It's none of those things. What this is, if you boil it down to the essence, every call that comes into 911 has a human being on the other end of it. This program is humanity-based."
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