The Best of 2021 | Page 14

The areas most impact- ed by this trend have been situations involving mental health crises and traffic stops .

www . AmericanSecurityToday . com 2021 CHAMPIONS - Edition 60

Changing crisis response .

OUR POLICE AND OUR FIRE DEPARTMENTS HAVE BEEN , FOR MANY YEARS ALREADY , HIGHLY OVERUSED FOR SITUATIONS THAT HAVE BACKGROUNDS AND UNDERLYING IS- SUES IN MENTAL AND BEHAVIORAL HEALTH .” 1 MARIELA RUIZ-ANGEL , DIRECTOR OF ALBU-

QUERQUE COMMUNITY SAFETY

Jurisdictions from Oakland to Denver and Austin to Boston are rethinking how they respond to mental and behavioral health crises .

Innovative co-responder pro- grams , mobile crisis teams , and civilian-only responses are appearing in cities across the U . S . In 2022 , reimagining public safety task forces will push their governments to implement policy recommendations craft- ed over the last 18 months .

Transforming traffic .

Expect 2022 to bring changes

Mariela Ruiz-Angel

in the transportation and traffic sectors .

Americans are stopped more than 20 million times annual- ly for traffic violations , making it one of the most frequent types of interactions between law en- forcement and the public .

To reduce perceptions of bias in traffic stops and comply with

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