Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden is reportedly seeking to implement a plan that would use a hike in Medicaid funding to support unarmed response teams that would replace police officers in some cases.
The Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets Act, expected to be announced Wednesday, is modeled and named after a decades-old program in Eugene, Oregon, based on the idea that unarmed medical professionals are more effective when responding to mental illness-related calls than police officers, according to Fox News.
The plan “takes best practices from Oregon and encourages other states to adopt them through increased Medicaid funding,” Wyden’s office said.
“CAHOOTS is not law enforcement,” Daniel Antonson, a former medic with CAHOOTS, said about the program. “They do not carry weapons, but rather, they utilize trauma-informed de-escalation and harm reduction techniques.”
Cities across the country are considering adopting programs like CAHOOTS. Lawmakers in Providence, Rhode Island, recently held a hearing to learn more about the program, and local officials in Evanston, Illinois, are also reportedly considering it.
Wyden’s plan is already an aspect of a larger Senate bill drawn up by Democrats referred to as the Justice in Policing Act of 2020, according to OregonLive.com.
The idea to send unarmed forces out on calls previously responded to by police comes as cities across the country move to defund and disband police departments in favor of new ways of policing in the wake of George Floyd’s death on May 25.
In Minneapolis, the city where Floyd died while in police custody, the city council voted unanimously to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a new “community led” model.
