Colo. deputy calms mental health crises
Larimer County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Cheryl Jacobs is Colorado’s USA TODAY Woman of the Year honoree.
Before Jacobs helped develop that agency’s mental health co-responder program, a 911 call to report a person behaving dangerously while experiencing a mental health crisis might have brought five vehicles with sirens and lights along with nine uniformed people to the scene.
Now when that happens, Jacobs and her mental health clinician partner show up in an unmarked vehicle because that makes things calmer.
“Hey, I know them,” one of them might be thinking as they take the call. “Let’s call his mom. Let’s see if he’s on his meds. Let’s see if I can get him to walk outside with the clinician (who he knows).”
Sometimes they can help resolve the situation and leave the person on scene. If treatment is needed, they can take them to a local behavioral health facility. They can also connect them to followup care, medication assistance and wraparound services.
Before the program existed, the people they help now might have gone to the jail or hospital or just go home, Jacobs said. And often, the cycle would repeat.
For years, Jacobs told her superiors at the sheriff’s office that there was a gap in the department’s services and they should be partnering with clinicians or therapists on certain calls.
It’s been more than five years since Jacobs led the creation of the program on a trial basis.
What started as a trial program with one deputy and one clinician now has four deputy-clinician teams with team leads and supervisors supporting them.
And Jacobs said she’s made only a few arrests in recent years, and just two last year, as she’s worked to get people the help they need.
“One of those guys still flags me down and talks to me,” she said. “You (might) think of these people and think, ‘This is a choice,’ but then I start learning some backstories.”
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Question: Who are the women who paved the way for you?
Answer: There were few women (in my previous police department), so I decided what kind of officer I wanted to be. I came from a department that wasn’t as professional as this one, so I set my own moral compass there that was different. I hope that I have led a path for other people to follow to be a good deputy, a great mom and a good community member. I always take a chance to get with any brand new female (in the sheriff ’s office) to give advice on how to have a good career.
What is your proudest moment?
When former Undersheriff John Manago let me get this program off the ground, and seeing it succeeding.
What was your lowest moment?
I almost got out of law enforcement (after the 2020 murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police). I got into this knowing and very willing to give my life, but to be hated was something I had a hard time dealing with. I started remembering why I loved what I was doing. I can lay my head down at night, asking myself: Did I keep someone out of prison? Our wins are a little different.
What is your definition of courage?
Doing the right thing and running towards that crisis to help that person when they call 911, even though there’s fear. And with that (courage) comes not luck: I’m at the gym, studying, learning the trade and being a master of my craft.
What advice would you give your younger self ?
Your biggest talent is that you’re not talented at anything. Your best asset is your work ethic. There are things I’m not going to be good at, but if there’s something I’m interested in, work hard at it.
(Back in Indiana, she used to box, and she learned she could wear down competitors by never backing down. “I’m not that great at this, but I do work hard at it.”)
Keep working hard at everything you do and you’re going to be happy with the outcome.