Current Events > Denver replaced cops with Healthcare workers in handling substance abuse calls

(+) Yeah! (+)

A program that replaces police officers with health care workers on mental health and substance abuse calls in Denver, Colorado, is showing signs of success, according to a six-month progress report. Despite responding to hundreds of calls, the workers made no arrests, the report said and the city's police chief told CBS News on Friday that he believes the program "saves lives."

Under the Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) program, health care workers are dispatched in lieu of police when responding to incidents involving issues with mental health, poverty, homelessness or substance abuse. STAR providers only respond to incidents in which there is no evidence of criminal activity, disturbance, weapons, threats, violence, injuries or "serious" medical needs.

During the first six months of the program, from June 1 to November 30, health professionals responded to 748 calls, including trespassing, welfare checks, narcotic incidents, and mental health episodes, according to the report. None of those cases required help from Denver police and no individuals were arrested.
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The health care workers are intentionally given cases that are less likely to result in police use of force. But as the deaths of Daniel Prude, Patrick Warren Sr. and countless others have shown, police responses to such cases can end in tragedy.

People who have untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed during a police encounter, and those who have an untreated severe mental illness are involved in up to half of all fatal police shootings, according to research by the Treatment Advocacy Center.

In 2020, Mapping Police Violence found that 94 people were killed by police who had responded to reports of someone behaving erratically or having a mental health crisis.

"By dismantling the mental illness treatment system, we have turned mental health crisis from a medical issue into a police matter," John Snook, executive director and a co-author of the Treatment Advocacy Center study, said in a press release. "This is patently unfair, illogical and is proving harmful both to the individual in desperate need of care and the officer who is forced to respond."

Going into 2020, Denver police said they found that calls for mental health assistance were 17% higher than the three-year average. Of the cases to which STAR responded, nearly 60% of the people who had diagnosed mental health issues were affected by schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder.

Similar programs to STAR have been rolled out elsewhere in the U.S. STAR was modeled after the Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets (CAHOOTS) program in Eugene, Oregon, which also uses unarmed intervention members to respond to mental health calls without police backup.

Denver's latest program is just one aspect of the police department's "layered" approaching to tackling issues in the community, Pazen told CBS News.

The city also has three other alternative response programs, including a co-responder program that pairs police with licensed professional behavioral health clinicians to respond to incidents in which people are experiencing behavioral health or substance abuse issues, Pazen said. The department has seven case managers who follow-up with people who were assisted by co-responders or the STAR team, or who were referred by police officers.

https://cbsn.ws/3aDZFxi


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Hopefully this catches on nationwide in other specialized areas as well.

Police should only come in for the typical Batman crimes.

Good, should be the norm

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lejonbrames posted...

Hopefully this catches on nationwide in other specialized areas as well.

Police should only come in for the typical Batman crimes.

Doesn't need to be nationwide, just cities. Put it in America's 50 largest cities and go from there.

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I didn't see it mentioned, but are the healthcare responders given any sort of training/deterrent if a situation becomes hostile?

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EnterTheTekken posted...

I didn't see it mentioned, but are the healthcare responders given any sort of training/deterrent if a situation becomes hostile?

I imagine they are all workers whove dealt with level 3 and above patients before. So theyve likely dealt with people spitting on and hitting them and shit and probably have a lot of history dealing with de-escalating situations like these.

could be wrong but i dont see why that wouldnt be the case.

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PipeHam posted...

Doesn't need to be nationwide, just cities. Put it in America's 50 largest cities and go from there.

Why?
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EnterTheTekken posted...

I didn't see it mentioned, but are the healthcare responders given any sort of training/deterrent if a situation becomes hostile?

"STAR providers only respond to incidents in which there is no evidence of criminal activity, disturbance, weapons, threats, violence, injuries or "serious" medical needs."

"The city also has three other alternative response programs, including a co-responder program that pairs police with licensed professional behavioral health clinicians to respond to incidents in which people are experiencing behavioral health or substance abuse issues"

Unknown, but they clearly are doing everything they can to sort out the violent situations. It's a good idea, and I hope it keeps working.

lejonbrames posted...

Police should only come in for the typical Batman crimes.

Police get crushed during Batman crimes. Thats why Batman comes in.

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Good. It should have been like this from the beginning. So many deaths could have been prevented

Imagine being able to go around and tell people "I'm a member of STAR!"

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Good. We should be helping addicts and the mentally ill, not murdering them.

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Beautiful.

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STAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRsssss

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Ive lived in Denver my entire life and this is probably the most unsafe downtown has been in 20 years. It is absolutely overrun with tent cities.

The outside neighborhoods away from Downtown are still nice though

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This is a good idea but they need to be specialized. It's different dealing with people in their own environment

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That's awesome, we definitely need to work towards that being the norm. And having health care workers paired up with cops who are specifically trained to handle the more iffy situations is also a great way to go about it, I think that having it be a specific division rather than something that random officers are sent on already has an innate filtering effect.

AngelsNAirwav3s posted...

Ive lived in Denver my entire life and this is probably the most unsafe downtown has been in 20 years. It is absolutely overrun with tent cities.

It seems like you're describing a housing problem, not a policing problem

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Hopefully more places start doing this.

Health care workers are a far better option for dealing with mental health issues than a violent thug who's just itching for an excuse to pull out his gun.
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I don't want to read all of that. Does this extend to people who are drunk and volitile?

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a-c-a-b posted...

Hopefully more places start doing this.

Health care workers are a far better option for dealing with mental health issues than a violent thug who's just itching for an excuse to pull out his gun.

Seriously. We have so many instances around here where a cop who is called to do a wellness check either just straight up acts like they're going after a criminal, or else escalates the situation.

There was a girl at the college who the cop dragged out of her dorm room half naked and then literally stood on her neck.

No witnesses nor video cameras that caught most of it showed the girl doing anything but begging to be left alone.

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AngelsNAirwav3s posted...

Ive lived in Denver my entire life and this is probably the most unsafe downtown has been in 20 years. It is absolutely overrun with tent cities.

The outside neighborhoods away from Downtown are still nice though

This is from a recent law change that allows homeless camps, unrelated to the mental illness program


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