Petition to shift money from Eugene Police to CAHOOTS picks up steam

EUGENE, Ore. — The White Bird Clinic CAHOOTS program is once again in the national spotlight as many cities look for guidance on police reform and other ways to improve public safety.

CAHOOTS staff are extensively trained on behavioral and mental health, and crisis intervention. Growing national interest comes amid a new push for more support here at home.

Police, medics, and firefighters - It's what we all think of for public safety. But what if there was another type of first responder?

“Public safety really needs to be looking at mental health behavioral health first response as its own system,” said Tim Black, Operations Coordinator for CAHOOTS.

That would be CAHOOTS.

White Bird Clinic founded the mobile crisis intervention program, CAHOOTS, in Eugene 30 years ago. Supporting the Eugene Police Department by responding to crisis situations, de-escalations, behavioral and mental health, intoxication calls, and even welfare checks.

It also responds in Springfield since about five years ago.

“So, when you talk about the difference between a CAHOOTS behavioral health first responder and a law enforcement officer, you know we’re really looking at a group of folks that have really engaged in direct and meaningful prolonged training specifically responding to mental health crisis,” Black said.

He says that crisis training is at least 500 hours for staff - 10 times more than the average police officer.

“We have a really great example of how communities can really evaluate what public safety means,” he said.

Now in the national spotlight, CAHOOTS has been taking inquiries from cities across the country explaining how its framework could play a role in police reform.

“What we do with those communities is going to be different it really depends what each group needs,” Black said. “We don’t think that CAHOOTS is a cookie-cutter program that you can just pick up from Eugene and plop into a big city like Houston and expect it to work the same.”

So, months, even years of training will likely be necessary for other cities.

Looking at reform locally, CAHOOTS only takes up only a small fraction of the Eugene Police Department's budget yet responds to about 20 percent of the calls.

A petition online is asking that 30 percent of the EPD budget be directed to CAHOOTS to expand its services and de-escalate harmful situations in a peaceful way.

The City of Eugene council meets June 22nd for public hearing and action on the FY21 proposed budget.