Alternative responses to 911 behavioral health calls can save lives

Since the start of this year, police in the United States have already killed 770 people. We can expect that next week they will kill about 19 more, with 19 more the week after that and the week after that. Locally, data secured from the Boulder Police Department as a result of a police misconduct lawsuit has revealed an alarming pattern of use of weapons by our city’s police force. On average Boulder police brandish their firearms about 10 times each month and they administer debilitating Taser electric shocks on one person each month.

What if it didn’t have to be this way? What if when Boulder’s 911 dispatch center received a call about a person having a behavioral health crisis, they could dispatch trained teams of unarmed mental health professionals and paramedics to respond? What if that alternative response team could respond to the call at a fraction of the cost of sending police officers, and with a much greater chance of actually helping the person in distress rather than harming them?

Boulder is on the cusp of doing just that. It is considering funding a program in 2023 to create a mental health/paramedic response team outside of the Boulder Police Department that would respond to appropriate 911 calls without any police officer being dispatched.

This model is not new, and it has had great success elsewhere, but it has never been tried here. According to the

Vera Institute, Eugene, Oregon’s CAHOOTS crisis intervention teams respond to about 20% of all calls to that city’s public safety communications center, “without the uniforms, sirens, and handcuffs that can exacerbate feelings of distress for people in crisis.” The CAHOOTS program has determined that police officers are not needed on the scene for 99% of their crisis calls. Similarly, a recent academic study of Denver’s STAR program credited it with reducing criminal citations by 34% in places where the program operated, and it cost four times less to respond to minor crimes as compared to sending police.

Given the remarkable success of these programs, one would think they would be adopted by cities around the country without controversy. But that’s not the case. It appears police departments and their boosters are reluctant to cede budget dollars to non-police responses or to support the idea that public safety isn’t always tied to more policing. Programs like STAR and CAHOOTS prove we can have better public safety at reduced cost without the constant din of police violence, a true win-win-win.

Faced with this evidence, some police organizations argue for “co-responder” programs that pair police officers with mental health workers to respond to 911 calls. While there may be a place for such co-responder teams, they are no substitute for the benefits to be realized from non-police response teams run separately from police departments using the STAR and CAHOOTS models.

The reason the non-police STAR and CAHOOTS programs work so well is that if you’re in distress, having a person with a badge, handcuffs, a Taser and a gun standing there creates more anxiety and leaves you questioning if the responder is there to help you, arrest you, Tase you or shoot you. The evidence-based alternative of having a caring mental health/ paramedic team without police just works better and prevents police violence.

Boulder’s Mayor, Aaron Brockett, has been the leading voice on our City Council championing the establishment of such a program here. When I asked him why he is pursuing an alternative responder program, he told me that in other cities, these programs “have shown improved outcomes from calls for service, they’ve saved money, and they’ve reduced the impact on police and fire departments from routine and mental-health-related calls.” He’s right, and it is time for Boulder to give this a try.

The matter will come before Boulder’s City Council on Oct. 6 as part of its budget discussion for 2023. I hope you will join me then in urging Boulder’s City Council to launch and provide meaningful funding for mental health/paramedic response teams based wholly outside of the police department so that when our family members or neighbors are in need of caring assistance when having behavioral health crises, we can have the confidence to call 911 knowing the responders will arrive without handcuffs, Tasers or guns, solely focused on providing care and help with compassion and dignity rather than aggression and possible violence.

Dan Williams is an attorney in Boulder focusing on civil rights and commercial litigation. In 2021, he was a candidate for the Boulder City Council.