PITTSBURGH — A controversial change is creating confusion for first responders.
11 Investigates broke the story Thursday that the city of Pittsburgh changed its program where police and social workers respond together to mental health calls.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE >>> 11 Investigates: City of Pittsburgh ends co-response program
One day after the change, there is still a lot of confusion about the procedures for requesting social workers, now that they are not with police officers.
The city’s Office of Community Health and Safety, this week, suddenly pulled the plug on the nearly two-year-old co-response program, where a social worker riding along with a police officer responds to emergency calls.
Many have told 11 Investigates they were skeptical when the program started, but they said it’s been highly successful and they don’t know why the city changed the model.
The head of the department told Chief Investigator Rick Earle in an interview Thursday afternoon that social workers will now respond in teams of two on their own, and she said that will improve efficiency and allow for expansion.
She said often times social workers are waiting for the police to finish on scene.
“Fire can call, EMS, community organizations, police, DPW, PLI (Permits, Licenses and Inspections). This is actually a great thing for the city that mirrors what other states are doing,” said director Camila Alarcon-Chelecki.
But 11 Investigates has learned it didn’t quite work out that way on day one.
Earle obtained an emergency call from a medic requesting a social worker on Friday morning, just one day after the city changed the program.
Medic: Is there a social worker available in this zone?
Police Officer: Inaudible. They’ve been disbanded.
While they haven’t been disbanded, the program has changed, but apparently not everyone in public safety is aware.
The sudden end of the co-response program to a crisis intervention response where social workers respond together drew sharp criticism from community leaders, like the President of the Zone 5 Public Safety Council, who saw the benefit of social workers working hand in hand with police officers.
“The police go in and make sure the place is safe, but at the same time, the social worker is right there and can say to the officer, use this language instead of that language,’” said Zinna Scott.
The head of the Citizen Police Review Board who said the co-response program had a positive impact on the way police handled mental health calls.
“It was expanding our officers’ abilities, where they were being able to look at this in a different way when they ran into somebody in a crisis. Now, that’s been dissipated. It’s a disgrace,” said Beth Pittinger, the Executive Director of the CPRB, who had expected to see the program expand to every zone in the city and to all three shifts.
The city has five social workers right now that all work daylight shifts, and under the co-response plan, they were assigned to an officer in Zones 1,2 and 5.
Now that social workers are working in teams of two, the number of teams has been cut in half.
Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.
Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW
©2025 Cox Media Group
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/XCUXZC2XYZHCRGNNGKFEX6U3LQ.png)
