Alpharetta police officers responding to a recent call from a Whole Foods store found themselves in the middle of an awkward standoff.
A man police knew to be homeless was hanging around the grocery store and making some employees and shoppers uncomfortable, Sgt. Jason Carter of the Alpharetta Police Department told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Carter recognized the man, and said he was not breaking the law.
“He probably needs mental help, but he’s always been harmless,” Carter said.
Officers didn’t make an arrest, or even issue a citation. Instead, they went shopping. The man did not have enough cash to pay for his groceries, so officers paid for the items and bought the man a cooler and ice to help keep his perishable food fresh.
According to Carter, the man has rebuffed many offers of more substantial help from charitable organizations over the years. He could not be located for comment.
“I try to teach things like compassion and empathy,” Carter said. “This is just what we do. We’re not doing it to pat ourselves on the back.”
Carter posted about the episode on Facebook and received thousands of likes, shares and comments, along with some criticism. A few commenters asked why the man needed groceries from Whole Foods instead of a discount store. Others suggested he get a job.
“Some people said things like, ‘thanks for not shooting him,’” Carter said.
Police deal with crime spike, calls for accountability
The Atlanta Police Department and other agencies are dealing with both a surge in violent crime and demands for accountability following high-profile cases such as the June 2020 shooting death of Rayshard Brooks.
The department investigated 157 homicide cases in 2020 — the highest number in decades. At the same time, 2020 saw protests following Brooks’ death and those of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky. “Defund Police” was painted in large yellow letters in the street outside of Atlanta’s police headquarters and a proposal to withhold $73 million from the Atlanta Police Department’s budget was nearly passed by the city council, which ultimately struck down the measure by a single vote.
This year in Atlanta, homicides, assaults and shootings are all on the rise and the department has seen some departures from its ranks. APD addressed the city’s crime wave, along with flagging morale and recruiting challenges, in a recent news release.
“We have seen good officers leave this department and have seen incidents of violent crime increase city wide,” it read. “(W)hile some good officers did choose to leave the APD, the vast majority of our officers chose to stay here and continue their work in your communities. The number of officers leaving the APD has stabilized and our recruitment numbers continue to improve. Our new leadership is well aware of the damage done to officer morale in the last year, and while there is no quick fix, Chief (Rodney) Bryant is committed (to) addressing the issue.”
Meanwhile, Atlanta’s new Policing Alternatives and Diversion initiative is aimed at reducing incarceration and arrest rates of people experiencing problems related to poverty, mental health or substance abuse. It functions on an annual budget of $1.5 million and is available to police officers and citizens of Atlanta by dialing 311.
“We know that when we heavily invest in policing and incarceration, more behavior is criminalized and more people are arrested for quality-of-life issues,” said community engagement manager Clara Totenberg Green.
The initiative sends caseworkers to respond to people experiencing mental health crises and other non-emergency calls. They can connect people with assistance programs and help with temporary housing, clothes, food and personal ID cards.
Making mental health a priority
A number of institutions have announced strategies for dealing with people experiencing mental health issues. Gwinnett County Sheriff Keybo Taylor, who campaigned in part on better de-escalation training for deputies, has announced a mental health task force.
The task force will be led by Lt. Trakida Maldonado, a former hostage negotiator in the sheriff’s office who is a licensed professional counselor. The team will focus on education around mental health and decriminalizing the effects of mental health issues, which can lead to homelessness and addiction.
In May, Lawrenceville’s city council approved an agreement with a local healthcare provider to send behavioral health technicians on some calls with police. This “co-responder model” often leads to lower rates of recidivism and incarceration, according to Lawrenceville Police Chief Tim Wallis. Brookhaven, Johns Creek and Athens-Clarke County have similar programs.
Additionally, the National Alliance on Mental Illness has several local affiliate organizations in the metro area that provide training and resources for people confronting mental health crises. There are affiliates in DeKalb, Gwinnett and Cobb counties as well as north Atlanta. At the state level, the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities serves people with mental illness or addiction.
Carter, the Alpharetta police sergeant, has been trained to deal with people experiencing mental health issues.
One February morning in 2019, Carter was dispatched to help with a woman who had climbed onto a highway sign over Ga. 400 and was threatening to jump. He spoke with her for about an hour, ultimately coaxing her back to solid ground before she surrendered to the police.
Another time, officers were dispatched on a suspicious person call because someone saw a man eating ravioli straight out of the can in a public place. Officers responded to check out the situation.
“It might have been strange, but he wasn’t breaking the law,” Carter said. “We don’t want to discourage people from calling us, because we can’t be everywhere all the time. But this guy wasn’t doing anything wrong, it was just a little unusual.”
Officers drove away without making contact, Carter said. They left the man to eat in peace.
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