Lubbock Police’s Victims Services Crisis Team has been busy with calls the last few years. They said it could be several reasons why the number of calls has escalated.
“Why are we busier?” said Andy Young, LPD negotiator and Victim Services Crisis Team Coordinator. “Is it because officers are more aware of us and more comfortable using us? Is the need greater? I would say both.”
When you’re in danger, you call police, but after a traumatic situation like a homicide, assault, or suicide, sometimes you need extra help.
“Grief counseling and crisis intervention,” said Young, “and helping people deal with a difficult situation like that. Those are the typical kinds of calls we get, but we get calls on just about anything.”
The Crisis Team has been in place for almost 20 years and they’re on-call 24/7.
“An officer will call us to assist the family, but then we’ll also get called if an officer gets a really bad call and, you know, something that bothers them.” said Young. “Mental health professionals in a car, out on patrol, listening to a police radio, responding to calls for service. A lot of departments don’t do it that way.”
He said when they started in 2000, they had about 50 calls that year. In 2018, that number jumped to more than 250 calls.
Young said as the need for them continues, they’ll be there.
“If I don’t talk about something,” he said, “then it gets bigger and darker and more horrible and it makes it hard for me to sleep and I get snippy with my family and it snowballs. But if I find a nice, safe place where I can process it and talk about it, it doesn’t get bigger.”