Not mental health crisis intervention
The first step in a mental health crisis is making sure patient, his family, and the clinician are safe. Until that safety has been ensured, no amount of therapy in the world is going to end the crisis.
Police don't provide mental health counseling, they ensure that such counseling as may be required can be provided safely by all involved.
If you truly think police can't benefit from learning how to de-escalate a situation with a mentally ill person without resorting to violence I don't know what to tell you
Police are well trained in de escalating situations.
When police come on a scene they have no idea the cause of someone's violent behavior. Drugs are a major cause psychosis. People under the influence of many drugs can black out, have immense strength, and be impervious to pain
It seems like there are a lot of calls that are not emergencies. If a bottle of water, a pack of tampons, and a pep talk from a therapist is all that is needed to handle the problem, then it should not be a 911 emergency call. Of course police are not needed for non-crime calls.
I wonder how many paramedic calls were included in those 1300 calls. A cop does not need to respond to a person having a heart attack assuming that ems can get there first.
Cops might be needed to ensure scene security....EMS is trained not to enter unsafe scenarios, no matter how badly the patient needs attention.
1300 calls and the police were not need as back up on any of them.
1,300 cherry picked low level calls.
Your point being?
Do you really want to put the weight of deciding whether a call is low level or has the potential of violence on a 911 operator? Aren't their jobs stressful enough already? Why?