What’s New

Tell MoCo Council NO to Bill 43-23

Remind them of Montgomery County’s CVE Scandal

What the CIT Legislation (Bill 43-23) is?

Montgomery County Council will vote on legislation which will embed social workers and police officers in the same car in responding to a mental health crisis call. In CIT International’s best practice guide (see page 60), they caution not embedding the two professions in the same care because of concerns that “police may dictate the response.”

Muslims in Montgomery County know that this is not just a theoretical concern because it happened here.

Just a few years ago, our county operated a racist surveillance program against Muslims (called Countering Violent Extremism or CVE) in which police and social workers collaborated to send Muslim residents with mental health needs to a program in Montgomery Village that was actually an intelligence gathering programs. You can learn more about CVE here.

The Legislation’s Connection to the CVE Scandal

The legislation will codify the very CIT model that was used to faciliate adoption by health providers to engage in surveillance. In the Montgomery County CVE Grant, the Police Chief inserted funding to provide for a social worker to be embedded in the CIT program to help with the CVE referrals. 

That was the first time that a social worker was placed with police officers. That social worker, as well as the social workers based in the surveillance center never spoke up about the unethical practice of using mental health services to gather surveillance, even after the grant ended.

Read here the full Police letter of support for CVE and hiring of the CIT social worker for this purpose.

But what is even more unsettling, is that the CVE-hired social worker will be a main stakeholder in the current implementation of this legislation related to embedding the two professions together.

Exclusion From Racial Equity Impact Statement

It is also important to note that any mention of the CVE scandal – one of our county’s most racist initiatives – was not included in the county’s racial impact statement which is a requirement for all proposed legislation. See here.

Take Action Now

Embedding social workers so intimately in police settings has a high potential to corrupt their ethics and duties as medical professionals. We have a recent scandal to show who devastating this can be. 

Tell County Council that police and social workers responding to a crisis, need to remain independent.