Seattle Civilian Responder Team Chafes Under Police Guild Contract Restrictions

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While the planned expansion of Seattle’s civilian crisis response program from 24 to 48 responders is proceeding, the team is still being blocked from performing much of the clinical work for which they are qualified due to the conditions laid out in the new Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG) contract.

Community Assisted Response & Engagement (CARE) department Chief Amy Barden told The Urbanist that the first training cohort of new community crisis responders recently graduated and are currently undergoing field training. The CARE team currently has 32 community crisis responders, with another nine scheduled to join during the next training cohort in June.

The department has not yet set a date by which to complete the full expansion to 48, CARE spokesperson Bobbie Nickel told The Urbanist.

The department is still in the process of deciding whether to use the increased worker capacity to have more teams available during peak hours or whether to focus on expanding hours of service, leaving fewer teams working at any given time.

https://www.theurbanist.org/seattle-civilian-responder-team-chafes-under-police-guild-contract-restrictions/