In January 2021, City Council approved the contract to launch the Community Assistance and Life Liaison (CALL) program pilot. CALL will improve the response to mental illness, poverty, and addiction; providing assistance while reducing criminalization and stigma.
Many of the calls for service the Police Department is asked to respond to during a normal day are better addressed by a human services professional. Through CALL, emergency dispatchers will send social workers to certain calls for service including mental health crisis, suicide intervention, truancy, homeless complaints, and neighborhood disputes.
CALL goals:
- Reduce police involvement in non-criminal and non-violent calls for service.
- Reduce repeat calls for service to police from the same person by providing support and longer-term service connections.
- Provide a more compassionate approach to quality of life issues.
- Increase the amount of time our sworn officers can focus on keeping our City safe.
Gulf Coast JFCS in partnership with St. Petersburg Police Department will lead a team of clinical staff andcommunity navigators who are dispatched to non-violent, non-criminal calls to provide a therapeutic,wrap-around response.