Starting in February Richmond’s crisis response team will start hitting the streets and responding to non-violent calls instead of police. It will help people connect to social services, de-escalate conflicts and crises, and provide transportation to care services at no cost. The Community Crisis Response Program’s advisory board was updated Friday night about how the program’s mobile response team — known as Reach Out With Compassion and Kindness — will work. ROCK will respond to behavioral health checks, wellness checks,…
About 20 people gathered in Richmond’s Nicholl Park on Wednesday to remember those who died in police custody or in a police shooting, as part of the National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality. Twenty other cities held similar protests, part of a growing movement organized by national organizations Dare to Struggle and Families Demanding Justice. This time last year, only six other cities had engaged in the nationwide protest, according to Dare to Struggle. “There have been thousands…
More than a dozen Richmond Police Department officers, staff and supporters used the public comment period of Tuesday’s City Council meeting to ask the city to fill dozens of Police Department vacancies, saying understaffing has forced many officers to work double shifts and even sleep at the station. But when Lt. George McLoughlin used his turn at the microphone to call for the return of two officers who were put on leave last month after the fatal shooting of 27-year-old…