The northeast area command ranks No. 1 in calls for service in the February 2022 Albuquerque Community Safety Report.
A map of requests for service shows about two dozen dots within the command’s boundaries along the north side of Interstate 40 and about a dozen along Intestate 25. The southeast area command ranks second by demand for service calls.
The top type of service call for all areas was for an unsheltered individual, with 373 calls made in February, 338 in January, and 399 in December. The next highest category of calls was for a welfare check, followed by wellness check and then behavioral health issue. There were zero calls for service for disturbances or needle pickup for all three months.
ACS has fielded 4,378 calls for service to date in the fiscal year, with 1,847 going to mobile crisis teams, 2,252 to behavioral health responders and 279 to street outreach responders. Calls to community responders is set to launch this month.
Of the behavioral help responder calls, no person was found in 170 instances. In 156 cases, resources were offered; of those, 80 were declined, 23 required transport, nine involved Albuquerque Fire Rescue aid, and four involved Albuquerque Police Department responses.
ACS background
The Albuquerque Community Safety Department launched in September as part of an initiative to ease the burden on police, fire rescue teams and emergency dispatch. According to a Sept. 11, 2021, Albuquerque Journal article, APD receives an average of 40,000 calls for service a month. A total of 785 calls for service were made in January to different ACS units, and 369 calls were referred through 911 for the same month.
The ACS February report lists several accomplishments among the different units for the month, including the assistance of unsheltered individuals, suicidal persons and welfare checks. In a Feb. 22 response by a mobile crisis team, an individual was contacted who “wanted officers to come shoot and kill him.” An MCT clinician made contact with the individual who had “consumed approximately 2 months worth of psychiatric medications in efforts to end his life.” Emergency medical services were called in and the “MCT team was able to safely get the individual to the hospital and off the road prior to endangering himself or others.”
According to the ACS February report, the full staff of 12 administrative staff members were hired or in the hiring process. In addition, a full field staff of 46 had been hired or were in the hiring process.
According to a governmentjobs.com job posting, hiring for tier one and two behavioral health responders is continuous and pays $54,080-$62,400 annually. To learn more about the department or how to become an ACS responder, visit cabq.gov/acs/.
