When Susan Clopp called 911 to get help for her son Miciah Lee in January 2020, who was suffering from a mental health crisis, he ended up dead after being shot by police during a chaotic scene that ended his life rather than rescued him.
On advice of the Sparks insurance carrier, the city decided agreed to pay $2 million to settle his family’s lawsuit which stated that officers deliberately killed Lee with their "lack of training and indifference to his impaired condition."
What if there was a service available locally which allowed distressed friends and relatives to get help in these types of situations?
The Oakland-based non profit organization Raheem has developed an app to replace 911 emergency calls called the People and Technology for Community Health (PATCH) Network, “harnessing the power of community and technology to reimagine safety and create a world without police.”
Raheem says it “builds infrastructure for the future of community crisis response.”
It works with a request screen indicating time, address and need.
It’s been used in different cities with existing organizations offering non-police responses to crises such as M.H. First in Oakland, Cambridge Holistic Emergency Alternative Response Team (HEART), Denver Alliance for Street Health Response (DASHR), and Revolutionary Emergency Partners in Minneapolis.
Would a northern Nevada organization be interested in joining up and doing the same, giving local communities other options than 911 in times of distress?