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Date: 8/22/2023
NORTHAMPTON — Another group of civilian responders will be taking to the streets as Western Massachusetts sees an expansion in alternative policing.
Answering community calls for police reform, Northampton created the city’s policing review commission in June 2020. The commission’s report, Reimagining Safety was released in March of 2021 with findings and recommendations based upon nationwide studies of policing issues and community engagement.
Kristen Rhodes, director of the Division of Community Care is now readying the city’s civilian responders for an early September launch.
A total of nine community responders are part of the inaugural department make up, with six full-time employees complimented by two part-time members and a full-time coordinator.
DCC’s focus is to address “racial and social inequities by building equitable, non-police, non-clinical responses for all while centering its most vulnerable community members in their struggles with emotional distress, substance use, houselessness, meeting basic needs, navigating conflicts and other related challenges.”
Amherst’s Community Responders for Equity, Safety and Service has been in operation since September 2022. Its eight members fall under the town’s public safety umbrella.
Just two months after their own launch, CRESS was recognized by the Council of State Governments Justice Center and the Center for Policing Equity, with members selected to participated in an enhanced training program.
In contrast to Amherst, the CCR’s work through Northampton’s Department of Health, different than the traditional set up, according to Rhodes.
“We are working collaboratively with the other public safety entities including PD, EMS and the FD as CRESS is doing in Amherst,” Rhodes said.
Responder training consists of more than 150 hours from different organizations covering mental health components, anti-racism as well as diversity, equity and inclusion. Collaborative problem solving and conflict resolution are also part of the instruction to allow the civilian force to potentially handle non-emergency, non-hazardous calls and services predominantly attended to by sworn police officers.
With the idea of a timely response to persons in crisis and in need of emotional support, the responders will be able to offer referrals while addressing the immediate needs and concerns for those feeling better served by other than traditional law enforcement.
Rhodes said the responders are also schooled on the community makeup in Northampton, allowing for interaction and intervention in housing and tenant issues and those involving mental and physical challenges and disabilities.
Other communities within Western Massachusetts provide pathways to public and private services, including nonprofit entities offering assistance with issues departments like CRESS and DCC seek to handle themselves.
A phased launch will begin with the answering of service calls coupled with a walk-in community space staffed by a coordinator, a responder and a public health nurse where the same services can be made available within a living room type setting.
Rhodes said contact options via phone, text or email will also be available with the initial program launch.
“We want it to be as low barrier as possible,” she said. “So whatever folks are comfortable with for reaching out to us and we’ll respond.”
While service calls will be answered by an in-house coordinator at the start, the methods of contact will be enhanced.
“In time and not initially, over the first year we will be integrated into 911 dispatch where we will also be getting dispatched out,” Rhodes said, with the initial methods of contact remaining available for those not wanting to call 911.
Calls identified as needing a police response will have officers dispatched while those capable of being downgraded or reclassified as appropriate for CCR will be handled or referred as such.
Rhodes also said that co-responses involving police officers and CCR are also a possibility.
“If someone is calling for something and we can be there as an additional support, either as an emotional support or if they’re just looking for someone else to come then that’s a possibility,” she said. “But we definitely know when it needs to go to that next level of care and when it’s a situation that we would not be responding to for the safety of the community.”
The Police Department, meanwhile, contracts for full-time services to provide two mental health co-responders, employees of Clinical & Support Options, who work out of the police department and respond to mental health calls.
“These are employees who work with us in our building,” said Police Chief Jody Kasper. “We know them well; they spend some of their time riding with officers in the police car.”
Kasper says when they first started, the assumption was the co-responders would largely be going to calls involving persons in crisis and similar incidents but as time went on, broader applications for their service and presence was identified.
“We respond to a good number of unattended deaths every year, maybe 50 or so, where someone passes away at home, with their family around, maybe family finds them, maybe friends find them,“she said. “There’s people on scene experiencing trauma, they’re going through the loss of a loved one and prior to the mental health co-responders, it was police officers who were on scene,” she continued. “Now we have this additional resource to provide support to the families.”
As CRESS in Amherst seeks to increase their departments staffing and hours for service, Northampton’s phased launch is scheduled for Sept. 5 with a daytime service schedule similar to what Amherst is currently providing.