Hennepin County extends embedded social worker program to seven more suburban police departments

Hennepin County is expanding its new program to embed social workers in police departments as the debate over policing reforms continues across the state.

Seven suburban departments serving cities around Lake Minnetonka will join the program in early 2022, bringing the total number of departments in the county that use the social workers to 21. County officials launched the program in 2019 to tap the skills of mental health experts on crisis calls and allow police to focus on crime instead.

With next year's expansion, the program will embed 12 social workers across the 21 departments that serve 29 cities in Hennepin County.

"People suffering from mental health crises aren't criminals. They need our help. They need to be given treatment, not put in jail cells," said Hennepin County Sheriff David Hutchinson, who was flanked by city and county leaders during a news conference Tuesday outside the newly renovated Minnetonka police headquarters.

Hutchinson said the program fills gaps in police departments with social workers like Jessica Angeles, who splits her time between the Minnetonka and Plymouth police departments, which were among the first departments to join the program.

Angeles said that most people who call police are dealing with psychiatric crises and described her role as identifying "the cause of the crisis and coming up with clear solutions to help the person get back to their normal functioning." That could be rent assistance, therapy or case management.

"Every day, I see situations where people have issues that just don't need police work," she said.

Officials say the embedded social worker program helps reduce the number of repeat calls related to mental health. In Brooklyn Park, about 30% of mental health calls were coming from the same 25 residents. After assigning a social worker to engage with those residents over a period of six months, calls dropped by 85%.

Of the 40,000 calls that Minnetonka police received in 2020, about 450 were mental health calls, said officer Scott Marks, a trained social worker who serves as Minnetonka's community engagement officer. Minnetonka and Plymouth police have a joint mental health unit to reduce repeat calls and track data for better outcomes.

Marks said that he has trained 20 officers in crisis intervention, which is becoming more common in police work. Even then, he said, "Law enforcement isn't always the right answer."

Minnetonka Police Chief Scott Boerboom said he hoped that his department can get a full-time social worker on staff rather than the part-time help now offered through the program.

The new cities to be served by the program next year are Corcoran, Deephaven, Excelsior, Greenwood, Long Lake, Medina, Minnetonka Beach, Minnetrista, Mound, Orono, St. Bonifacius, Shorewood, Spring Park, Tonka Bay, Wayzata and Woodland.

Few communities in the county will be left out of the program after 2022.

When asked if Minneapolis would join, Hutchinson said the city has its own social worker program, though he added that "in the last year and a half it's been subdued because of the lack of support from some of their leaders there, but also just because of the sheer number of officers leaving."

More than a year after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, the department is struggling to recruit officers. The future of policing in the city will be left up to voters in November. Hutchinson said that while people are calling for changes in policing, the help provided by police will be limited without more funding.

But the state is investing in alternative responses to mental health crises. This year, $13 million went toward the Department of Human Services for mobile crisis mental health services.

Every county has an emergency number for adults in crisis and separate numbers for children's mental health.

For those who need immediate help across Minnesota, call **CRISIS (**274747) from a cellphone to talk to a team of professionals, or text "MN" to 741741.

Kim Hyatt • 612-673-4751