On Saturday night, SAPD responded to at least four shootings across San Antonio. With the City Council passing its spending plan for Fiscal Year 2024, SAPD will soon see an officer increase to help increase response abilities.
budget allows for SAPD to add 105 police officers
, marking this the single largest increase to the department in more than 20 years. But that’s not the only item in the budget involving SAPD. During budget talks this past summer, council members strongly favored expanding the city’s mental health response. Now, in the budget for the upcoming year, they’re adding more funding to help achieve this around the clock.
“We need to increase the number of officers who can help,” Karen Falks, the assistant chief of police at SAPD, said regarding the citywide mental health response., or SA CORE, to work 24/7. They’re a team made up of a trained police officer, an SAFD paramedic and a licensed mental health clinician to respond to mental health crises.“Right now, we know when the peak times are and we want to make sure we have people here for those peak times,” Falks said.
Falks said the department is looking to expand its Mental Health Unit, but in the meantime, the force is working to train all of its officers on mental health response. This will take three years to complete.Copyright 2023 by KSAT - All rights reserved.Avery Everett is a news reporter and multimedia journalist at KSAT 12 News. Avery is a Philadelphia native. If she’s not at the station, she’s either on a hiking or biking trail.