June 3, 2021
A new report says thousands of emergency calls made in Tacoma, Washington, could be handled by trained civilians rather than sworn police officers.
The Report on the Alternative Response Study, created by Matrix Consulting Group, found that 9.4 percent of calls handled by Tacoma patrol officers per year about 7,829 could be diverted to a civilian response group.
The News Tribune reports the study recommended creating a new civilian community service officer classification within the Tacoma Police Department to respond to certain non-emergency calls in the field. Those calls could include minor non-injury accidents, petty theft reports, burglary reports not happening in the moment and low-priority calls relating to homelessness that do not pose a major risk to the responder. Diverting those calls would free up patrol officers to be proactive in engaging with the public and focusing on more severe calls for service, the report states.