A majority of those who participated in a study commissioned by the city of Columbus believe that social service and mental health professionals could respond to many of the non-violent 911 calls now routinely handled by police.
That conclusion was among the findings presented Tuesday night by a company hired by the city to gauge public opinion on law enforcement and safety. The Saunders PR Group, a Columbus public relations consulting firm, spent weeks gathering feedback from community members through a series of virtual town halls, more than a dozen focus groups, and a community survey with nearly 4,000 participants.
The results were revealed during the latest "Reimagining Public Safety” virtual town hall hosted Tuesday by the Columbus City Council. Overwhelmingly, the firm reported, respondents favored investing in community resources that would alleviate the Columbus Division of Police of the burden of responding to every emergency, said Gayle Saunders, founder and CEO of the Saunders PR Group.