Non-Police Community Resources and Contacts

If you need help with a violent emergency, 911 is likely your best bet for help. If you are experiencing a medical emergency that requires an ambulance, 911 is likely your best bet for help. If you need a different kind of help in Reno or Sparks, who should you call? Our local police officers are not trained to respond to many of the calls they receive regarding mental wellness, houselessness and myriad of other things. Their capacity to de-escalate situations for which they were never trained is limited. In some cases, such as the case of Miciah Lee, they will use lethal force when perhaps another agency could have handled the situation without lethal force. For many, MANY reasons, police do not look at all citizens the same way and they do not enforce laws equally among all people. Join me in a less than ideal, but maybe functional metaphor: For what primary purpose do you use a hammer? A reasonable situation would be hammering in a nail. Would you use a hammer to smooth out a rough surface? No, not if you understand the function of a hammer. Would you maybe use sandpaper to smooth out a rough surface? If you knew where to get it and it was available to you for free or at a low cost, yes, maybe you would use sandpaper to smooth out your rough surface. The police have many hammers, and our community is filled with many rough surfaces. Sure, some nails require a hammer. Most of us, though, are not nails. Some of our rough surfaces would benefit from a "smoothing tool", a social worker for example. Use the community tool that fits your needs! Using the wrong tool can hurt you or someone else. If you are not experiencing a violent emergency or medical emergency requiring an ambulance, consider calling one of the resources in the document link below. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IqF9EaFCQwhqvQr8KvkVHmZh8sEFqWA2/view?usp=sharing