Name: Call police for a woman who is changing clothes in an alley? A new program in Denver sends mental health professionals instead.
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Call police for a woman who is changing clothes in an alley? A new program in Denver sends mental health professionals instead.

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Chris Richardson, Associate Director of Criminal Justice Services, left, and paramedic Chase Lindquist get in a STAR van to respond to an emergency call on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2020. Calls dispatched to STAR are non-violent 911 calls that replace the need for police to respond to calls that don't threaten public safety.A concerned passerby dialed 911 to report a sobbing woman sitting alone on a curb in downtown Denver.Instead of a police officer, dispatchers sent Carleigh Sailon, a seasoned mental health professional with a penchant for wearing Phish T-shirts, to see what was going on.The woman, who was unhoused, was overwhelmed and scared. She’d ended up in an unfamiliar part of town. It was blazing hot and she didn’t know where to go. Sailon gave the woman a snack and some water and asked how she could help. Could she drive her somewhere? The woman was pleasantly surprised.“She was like, ‘Who are you guys? And what is this?'” Sailon said, recounting the call.This, Sailon explained, is Denver’s new Support Team Assistance Response program, which sends a mental health professional and a paramedic to some 911 calls instead of police.RELATED:&nbsp;Since its launch June 1, the STAR van has responded to more than 350 calls, replacing police in matters that don’t threaten public safety and are often connected to unmet mental or physical needs. The goal is to connect people who pose no danger with services and resources while freeing up police to respond to other calls. The team, which is not armed, has not called police for backup, Sailon said.“We’re really trying to create true alternatives to us using police and jails,” said Vinnie Cervantes with Denver Alliance for Street Health Response, one of the organizations that helped start the program.Though it had been years in the making, the program launched just four days after protests erupted in Denver calling for transformational changes to policing in response to the death of George Floyd.“It really kind of proves that we’ve been working for the right thing, and that these ideas are getting the recognition they should,” Cervantes said.No day is alike according to the two professionals from the Mental Health Center of Denver who work out of the van — Sailon and Chris Richardson.The team has responded to an indecent exposure call that turned out to be a woman changing clothes in an alley because she was unhoused and had no other private place to go. They’ve been called out to a trespassing call for a man who was setting up a tent near someone’s home. They’ve helped people experiencing suicidal thoughts, people slumped against a fence, people simply acting strange.“It’s amazing how much stuff comes across 911 as the general, ‘I don’t know what to do, I guess I’ll call 911,’” Richardson said. “Someone sets up a tent? 911. I can’t find someone? 911.”, still in its pilot, as an example of progress as it is barraged with criticism during and after the protests.“It’s the future of law enforcement, taking a public health view on public safety,” Denver police Chief Paul Pazen said. “We want to meet people where they are and address those needs and address those needs outside of the criminal justice system.”Pazen doesn’t think an expanded program would reduce the number of police officers needed by the city but it would allow them to focus on other priorities, such as violent crime and traffic fatalities. The STAR van handles a small fraction of the department’s annual 600,000 calls, but the department is tracking calls across the city to see how many could be handled by the STAR team if it were to expand.The department has seen an increase in the number of mental health related calls over the last few years, he said, and data collected by the state shows that about a third of the people in Denver’s jails are unhoused.“Instead of putting people in handcuffs we’re trying to meet their needs,” Pazen said.The STAR program builds off the city’s co-responder program, which has paired mental health professionals with police officers since 2016 on calls where a person is suspected needing mental health services. The 17 mental health professionals responded to 2,223 calls in 2019 and the city’s Department of Public Health and Environment pays the Mental Health Center of Denver about $700,000 a year for its services. The co-responser program, which started with three mental health workers, is hiring now to expand to 25 such professionals, Pazen said.The combination of STAR, the co-responder program and regular police units creates a sort of continuum of response that dispatchers can choose from, Richardson said. So far, the most common calls the van responds to have been trespassing and mental health checks.“Once upon a time, someone called and police were tagged in to see what was going on,” Pazen said. “And I think we’re at a point where we’re realizing that police don’t have to be the first people all the time.”During STAR’s six-month pilot program, the van is operating between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Friday in central downtown and along South Broadway. Eventually, the community groups want to move the STAR program from underneath the police department and manage it themselves, an idea Pazen said he supports.The pilot program was paid for by a grant from Caring for Denver, a pot of money for initiatives to address mental health and substance abuse collected through a sales tax. The foundation managing the money awarded $208,141 to launch the STAR program. Though sales tax revenue is expected to decline in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cervantes said the city should make STAR part of its budget and expand it citywide.“I’m not so much worried about the funding being there, it’s about the will to get funding to the right places,” Cervantes said.Organizers are working to help other cities adopt the program. Aurora city leaders are considering launching their own program as they face protests about police brutality and pressure to reshape emergency response.One of the perks is the team often has the luxury of working with a person for two hours if needed, Sailon said. They’re able to build lasting relationships and connect people to longterm support.“The rapport we’ve been able to build with people is really incredible,” Sailon said. “Something’s on the right track.”Thanks for reading!Get unlimited access to enjoy this article and moreAlready a subscriber? LoginView more on

Chris Richardson, Associate Director of Criminal Justice Services, left, and paramedic Chase Lindquist get in a STAR van to respond to an emergency call on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2020. Calls dispatched to STAR are non-violent 911 calls that replace the need for police to respond to calls that don't threaten public safety.A concerned passerby dialed 911 to report a sobbing woman sitting alone on a curb in downtown Denver.Instead of a police officer, dispatchers sent Carleigh Sailon, a seasoned mental health professional with a penchant for wearing Phish T-shirts, to see what was going on.The...

Call police for a woman who is changing clothes in an alley? A new program in Denver sends mental health professionals instead.

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