KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department Chief Rick Smith acknowledged the importance of social workers but said they can't replace law enforcement officers in a blog posted Friday.
"Social work absolutely has a place in law enforcement, but it cannot replace law enforcement, as many people have demanded this year," Smith said. "People who are in mental health or substance abuse crisis are not stable."
In June, social justice groups protested and demanded the city reallocate resources from KCPD to social services.
However, Smith cited several incidents within the last three weeks in which social workers were killed in the line of duty as examples of why he believes this isn't completely possible.
"In the last three weeks, two social workers have been killed in the line of duty." Smith said. "On Nov. 30, a man in Seattle stabbed his caseworker, Kristin Benson, to death. On Dec. 2, a man in Melbourne, Florida, shot and killed Travis Knight, a social worker with whom the suspect had worked at a mental health treatment facility."
Smith said KCPD was one of the first police departments in the country to employ its own social workers in 2017.
Social workers are often paired with officers on certain calls, and Smith said he's seen dangerous situations for social workers in Kansas City first-hand.
One of these incidents involved a woman walking with her children wearing only a sun dress in freezing temperatures.
"After initially talking peacefully to our social worker, the woman became violent, which is not uncommon for users of that drug," Smith said. "Thankfully, the officers were there to step in to stop the woman and protect the social worker and the woman’s own children."
"I believe this law enforcement-social work partnership is the future of policing in America, and I’m glad we were at the forefront," Smith said.
