Pittsburgh to End Program Pairing Police Officers with Social Workers

Pittsburgh public safety officials say they will now pair social workers in separate vehicles as "secondary responders" with police on mental health-related calls.
Oct. 9, 2025
4 min read

What to know

  • Pittsburgh officials are ending the city’s co-response program, which paired police officers and social workers in the same vehicle for mental health calls, replacing it with separate “Crisis Response Teams” of social workers operating independently as secondary responders.

  • Assistant Public Safety Director Camila Alarcon-Chelecki said the new model follows national trends and will expand coverage by allowing social workers to handle non-emergency crises while freeing police for higher-priority calls.

  • Critics, including Citizen Police Review Board Director Elizabeth Pittinger, warned the change will erode coordination and trust built between officers, clinicians and the community, potentially weakening the city’s crisis response system.

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