THE "CALL 911" OPTION

In many communities police receive calls for minor disputes from people who either live together or involve neighbors. One urban police chief explained to me that such calls are both expensive and nonproductive. Each, he said, might take two officers off other calls and feel they don’t have the proper amount of time or experience to deal with minor disputes other than to try and calm the situation down.

Some communities have explored options, including mediation training for officers. This certainly expands their skills to deal with minor disputes, but it still takes them away from more serious calls. Several communities provide officers with referral information to local mediation centers, but with this approach, the disputing parties are on their own to contact a mediation center.

Dayton, Ohio, has just announced a new option: Dayton plans to send unarmed mediators to minor, nonviolent calls. According to Dan Kornfield, founder of and project manager of this new program, Dayton dispatchers receive approximately 150 calls to 911 each week that are appropriate for mediation. As the program is envisoned, the dispatcher will transfer possible mediation cases to a specialized screener who will determine if mediation is appropriate.

Initially calls involving juvenile concerns, noise complaints, neighbor disputes, barking dogs, panhandling, roommate troubles, partying, family arguments and loitering will be considered for mediation. 

When the two-person mediation team arrives on the scene their first priority is to evaluate the situation for safety and call for officers if needed. Then the mediators will assist the parties resolving the underlying sources of the conflict. The mediators have more time to listen to both sides and connect people to services they might need for help.

The program should not only benefit the people in their disputes, but free officers for more serious calls, like violent crimes and other dangerous scenarios.

More and more communities are using mental health experts and social workers for calls involving mental illness, drug addition, homelessness and nonviolent crises. But Dayton’s program may be the first to formally enlist mediators in community disputes.