Is There a New Way for the Police to Respond?

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Roman Mars: I'm thinking today about how we're thinking about the police and maybe how to sort of defund them or divest them of some of these activities, which they're not suited towards. He says it's kind of interesting to imagine that there could be a word like rapid response, social worker or mental health worker that is going to be sent out in 50 years. 99% Invisible was produced this week by Kevin Hazard, edited by Joe Rosenberg, tech production by Sarah McCarthy and updated mixing by Martin Gonzalez. Our senior editor is Delaney Hall.

When people ask me what my favorite episode of 99% Invisible is, I have a hard time answering. Not because they’re all my precious little babies or some such nonsense, but mostly it’s because I just can’t remember them all and there’s no simple criteria to judge them against each other. But the show is definitely in contention for the best episode we’ve ever made. It just has everything– engaging storytellers, brilliant reporting, and a compelling history of a moment when the world really changed. It’s called the Freedom House Ambulance Service. It originally aired in the summer of 2020, when a lot of the fundamental aspects of work, life, health, law enforcement, structural racism, cities were all being questioned by more and more people because of COVID and the George Floyd protests. Kevin Hazzard, who reported the piece, subsequently released a whole book on the Freedom House Ambulance Service called American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America's First Paramedics. It’s new, it’s out now, you should buy it. should read it, it should be on all your Christmas lists. To celebrate the book’s release, I’m proud to re-present to you: The remarkable story of the Freedom House Ambulance Service.