Editorial: Honolulu police and homelessness

For better or worse, the Honolulu Police Department has found itself assuming a prominent role in handling Honolulu’s homeless population.

Police officers may crack down on illegal behavior, but they also partner with social service agencies to provide help (see honolulupd.org/post).

But money is tight, and HPD Chief Susan Ballard said she would rather shift more of the burden to social service experts.

She pushed back against a proposal from the Honolulu Police Commission, issued last month, that HPD establish a new division “empowered to focus on interacting with individuals who are homeless or mentally challenged, or in special cases involving drug abuse or domestic abuse.”

The division would include rank-and-file officers under the supervision of a major, as well as trained psychiatrists and psychologists.

“We should not be creating a whole separate (police) unit for addressing homelessness,” Ballard told the commission. “The police interaction should be coming less and less, and the social services coming more and more.”

She isn’t wrong. In fact, some other cities are testing outreach strategies that don’t involve the police, with promising results.

Late last year, Denver formed the Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) program, which dispatches social workers in response to nonemergency 911 calls. They arrive in a van stocked with supplies — food, blankets, clothes — with a mission to provide relief and guidance. Denver learned from a landmark 32-year-old program in Eugene, Ore., population 168,000, which diverts up to 20% of 911 calls from police to social workers.

Sacramento launched its Mental Health First program last year, and just last month, Oakland approved its own civilian response program.

These programs have worthy goals: to replace the traditional police response with a softer, less intimidating approach that guides homeless people toward social services rather than the laborious and ill-equipped justice system. Also, to save money. In Eugene, the city estimates it saves about $15 million by reducing police overtime — a big issue for HPD — and emergency-room visits.

Still, there are caveats. Most of the cities integrate emergency 911 systems with their programs; dispatchers had to be trained to distinguish nonemergency calls from those that threaten public safety. Also, social workers can’t enforce the law, and sometimes that is what’s needed. HPD must continue to play a supporting role, along with its other duties, in addressing the complex social, political and economic problem that is homelessness.

But it’s hoped that with proper training and resources, more dedicated social workers can rise to the challenge, with better results.