Police in St. Petersburg, Florida, announced Thursday they will no longer send an officer for non-violent 911 calls.
Instead, the St. Petersburg Police Department (SPPD) said they would be creating a new division within the department – the Community Assistance Liaison (CAL). The SPPD said it planned to retain “a social service agency to respond to non-violent calls for service from the public.”
A press release from the SPPD said that in 2019, “the Police Department responded to approximately 12,700 calls for service on the above issues (out of a total of 259,800 calls for service).”
The new CAL department will now handle the above calls instead of trained police officers. The new division will also replace a previous commitment to hire an additional 25 officers over the next two years. – READ MORE
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