RACINE â When the prospect of embedding social workers in police departments gained traction after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, some balked at it. But in his final months with the Racine Police Department, Chief Art Howell tried to lay the foundation for such a program.
A plan being considered in Racine wouldnât send social workers in the place of cops to 911 calls, but social workers-in-training may be brought in to assist in certain scenarios in what could be of benefit to community members in crisis, stretched-thin police units and taxpayers.
An example
Frazier
While still a college student at Aurora University in Illinois in the mid-1990s, Racine native Arletta Frazier was interning as a social worker-in-training with the police department in Aurora. She remembers specifically responding to a 911 call with a police officer in âthe projectsâ where the officer told her she should leave her coat behind even though it was cold becau