Strafford News

recently issued the following announcement on March 1.

With funding from a Community Oriented Policing Service (COPS) grant through the US Department of Justice, the Dover Police Department announced last week the hiring of Dover native Kaitlin Jones as the department’s police social worker. Her focus will be to work as a liaison with various social service agencies and clinical providers with the goal of providing more direct follow-up referrals for individuals and families, not responding directly to police calls.

Jones has been assigned to the department’s Community Response and Engagement Unit. She comes to the Dover Police Department from the Rochester School District where she had been a guidance counselor. She has a master’s degree in social work from Bridgewater State University.

Dover, like many communities across the state, continues to see the impacts of the opioid crisis, people experiencing homelessness, and the lack of access to mental health services. The police social worker will work closely with police officers, firefighters, community mental health agencies, recovery centers, anti-poverty agencies, the school department, other city departments, and other agencies that can help those in need. She will then refer individuals and families to the resource(s) most equipped to assist.

One of Jones' responsibilities will be to follow up with individuals and families after police interactions to provide them with clear direction on how to obtain appropriate services and help them through that process. Examples of police interactions that may involve follow-up and referrals include; domestic disturbances, drug overdoses, suicide attempts, death investigations, and mental health related calls. The goal is to provide referral assistance to individuals and families when they are no longer experiencing a crisis in order to reduce the number and frequency of those crises. This will also reduce need for public safety intervention.

Original source can be found here.