Representatives of the Albany Police Department met with community members Tuesday to discuss plans to incorporate social workers into the force.
The Albany Police Department is rolling out a program that has its origins in the 2021 Albany Policing Reform and Reinvention Collaborative report, produced in response to a state mandate for municipalities to formulate plans for police reform. The report recommended the city include social work services in its resources.
Chief Eric Hawkins says implementation of the program reflects a cultural change within the department and offers a better way to address disputes that often begin at home, which are generally not a police matter. His answer: staffing all police stations round-the-clock with social workers trained to handle difficult situations.
"We're going to bring these social workers into our department, we're going to put them... the idea, long term, is to have the social workers available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in both of our stations, Center Station and South Station," said Hawkins.
Ten social workers are being recruited. Albany Police Commander Norah Harrington is overseeing the initial hiring process and also spoke at the public library gathering.
"We're looking for a master's degree in social work from a graduate school of social work approved by the New York State Department of Education, or a graduation from a regionally accredited college or university with a bachelor's degree in social work," Harrington said, adding that candidates are under consideration.
"Currently, we are looking to hire a senior social worker. We found that we are incapable of hiring social workers without having somebody with the oversight. So our senior social workers will come on with the necessary degree in the master's work that they need to oversee the social workers that we hire. We've had several applicants, several great applicants, we are in the process of hiring one, possibly two. All the candidates that we've interviewed, they all know that they're going to be tasked with helping us build this program so that we can fit it to the community needs, as well as the department needs," said Harrington.
Hawkins says bringing the mental health professionals on board will allow for better outcomes for people in crisis and free up police officers to focus on public safety.
"And they're coming to us, they're not going anyplace else, and not going to the fire department, they're not going to other city departments," Hawkins said. "When they have these sorts of challenges, they're coming to us, and they want some answers. And we just felt that when people are coming and they're in that sort of crisis, we need to be able to give them something, something more than we would give them. And this is a part of an innovation, and evolution of policing."
Hawkins called the forum "beneficial" and told reporters the APD is positioning itself as a leader and model for other police agencies.
"I think this is something that's a little unique, though, because we're having these social workers that will be 24/7 available to our community, totally integrated into police operations. Whereas a lot of the programs that we've seen in other places, you know, they're operating as sort of a separate entity. And so we see it as an innovation, you know, but look, what we know, we've got to step up, we know that there are gaps, we know that people need help. And we don't want to wait, we don't want to wait for somebody else to come and say this, this is what can be done," said Hawkins.
Hawkins expects the program will be fully operational by fall.
