11 Investigates: City of Pittsburgh ends co-response program

PITTSBURGH — 11 Investigates has uncovered new details about a plan to change the way social workers and police work in the city of Pittsburgh, and it has sparked controversy and outrage throughout the community.

Chief Investigator Rick Earle learned about the change Tuesday night, and he’s been speaking to police officers, social workers, community leaders and residents to confirm the details.

Earle also spoke with the director of the Office of Community Health and Safety, Camila Alarcon-Chelecki.

She told Earle that many communities across the country are turning from the co-response model to a crisis response model, where social workers will no longer ride with police officers, but will pair up with other social workers and respond in teams of two to mental health calls.

The director claims the change will allow the program to expand and run more efficiently.

But critics of the move call it a devastating blow to a highly successful pilot program that is helping people.

And some of those critics who are close to the program tell Earle there’s another reason they believe the program is being targeted.

They claim there’s been tension between the director and the Pittsburgh Police Sgt., who ran the program and they said they believe that is the reason it’s being disbanded.

The director said that it is not the reason.

Pittsburgh police and social workers began working together, riding in the same car about two years ago.

But now the city says it’s disbanding that program, pulling the social workers out of the police cars.

They’ll now respond in teams of two on their own.

The director said it will be a more efficient use of time for both police and social workers.

“We found a lot of the times our social workers were either sitting in the car because police have to do police work, and a lot of the times we were on scenes for a long period of time,” said Alarcon-Chelecki.

She also said this will now give other departments, like Fire and EMS, access to social workers.

She said to this point, they have strictly worked with the police.

But the sudden move came as a surprise to many who embraced the co-response program, like the President of the Zone 5 Public Safety Council, Zinna Scott, who has lived in Homewood for 50 years.

“This program is needed in the city. For it to go away is a slap in the face. People in the community are very happy with it and the reason they are happy is it saves lives,” said Scott.

And at a news conference on the North Shore with Governor Josh Shapiro last week, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey touted the co-response program that’s now being disbanded.

“Trained co-responders from OCHS teams now join law enforcement on calls involving individuals facing mental and behavioral illnesses,” said Mayor Gainey.

But multiple sources tell 11 Investigates that there’s more to this story.

They said there was friction and tension between the police sergeant who ran the program and the director, and they claim that’s what led to the changes.

Earle asked the head of OCHS about this.

Earle: Some of the people have indicated to me that they believe this was retaliation by you to get back at her?

Chelecki: Okay.

Earle: How do you respond to that?

Chelecki: I think this is larger than one person. There’s always going to be friction when there’s a lot of folks.

Earle also spoke with the Executive Director of the Pittsburgh Citizen Police Review Board, who fears that the change will lead to delays in service.

“It’s an absolute disgrace because people were working hard. The most effective model is the co-response, having a mental health clinician in the vehicle with the officer to respond immediately to the person in crisis, not ten or fifteen minutes later or maybe the next day,” said Pittinger, who was a proponent of expanding the program into all police zones and providing social worker coverage around the clock.

Right now, there are only four social workers who had been riding along with officers in Zone 1 on the North Side, Zone 2 in the Hill District and Zone 5 in the eastern suburbs.

Under that plan, the social workers and officers responded to calls only on the daylight shift.

Under the new plan, there will only be two teams of social workers and they will still work daylight and respond to calls when needed.

They won’t be riding in police cars anymore so they may not get to scenes as fast as they used to.

But they also won’t be limited to police calls, and will now respond to mental health calls from other city departments, like Public Works.

But the controversy may not go away soon.

11 Investigates has learned that the city council just found out about the changes in an email sent out on Wednesday and some members have already started questioning the director.

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