Denver is Reforming the Police, and the Rest of the Country Should Follow

The STAR pilot program signals a system change

The United States and the rest of the world have witnessed numerous protests against police brutality after George Floyd’s murder in May 2020. People are demanding a change — a police reform in particular. There is also a suggestion of defunding the police, and while not everyone supports it, the country needs reform.

One city quietly rolled out a pilot program directed at reforming the police last month, amid the protests. It has been in the works for over a year, and the timing could not have been better. The city of Denver in the state of Colorado introduced a new way to handle a number of 911 calls, where a social worker is needed much more than a police officer.

Supported Team Assisted Response (STAR) Is a non-emergency crisis intervention service that represents a team of two specialists: a social worker and a paramedic. Once a 911 dispatcher concludes that an incoming call requires diverting from a police officer to a crisis response team, the STAR specialists will be on their way. They are unarmed, and their goal is to provide help as opposed to making an arrest.

What kind of emergencies does STAR handle? According to the press release, the goal is to assist with noncriminal situations: mental health issues, intoxication, overdose, homelessness, and others. At this stage, the city launched the pilot in the central part of Denver, but in six months, it should expand.

The goal should be to assist a vulnerable individual with respect and know how to provide medical care. Those people require help involving social services, not a police car pulling up next to them.

The Vice News followed the STAR team for a day and filmed an interview with Ceylan, the social worker, and Lee, the paramedic, who represent this pilot. Ceylan explains her involvement in the preparation and rollout of the STAR, and why it’s crucial to replace the police involvement with social service and medical response in some situations.

In the interview, you can see the team approaching homeless individuals and offering them help. Ceylan tells the reporter how beneficial it is to approach homelessness with compassion and willingness to help. She also explains that a homeless person might require medical attention, which is why a paramedic would do more good compared to a police officer, who would be unable to provide help on the spot. You can also see Ceylan visiting the homeless sites and offering them supplies and food to ensure those people don’t go hungry.

But STAR isn’t the first initiative whose main purpose is to provide social support. The city of Eugene in Oregon launched CAHOOTS — Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets — in 1989, long before the recent events. It’s a mental health crisis intervention program created to assist individuals who don’t pose a danger to society and don’t require the presence of police.

CAHOOTS assists Americans who suffer from mental health problems, addiction and homelessness. Similar to the STAR initiative, the team consists of a paramedic and a mental health crisis counsellor. Sometimes their job is as simple as finding shelter for a homeless person, providing people with food or assisting someone who is disoriented.

Programs like STAR and CAHOOTS present the opportunity to assist an individual who is in the middle of a mental health crisis and provide help, as opposed to involving the police and risking that person’s life.

The CAHOOTS team responded to 17% of 911 calls in 2017, and in 2018 this percentage increased to 20. Not only it signifies a better way to handle certain requests for help, but it also saves the city money. The Wall Street Journal pointed out the program costs $800,000, compared to $58 million, usually spent by the police department.

But the most significant achievement of such programs is the ability to deescalate a potential conflict and save lives. The Treatment Advocacy Centre estimated that people with mental illnesses are 16 times more likely to be shot by the police, compared to the rest of the population. Emma Frankham, the editor for Journals, reports that 25% of people who were shot by the police in 2015–2016, had mental illnesses.

No matter how much effort the government pours into solving social issues, there is always a vulnerable population. The number of homeless people in the United States was estimated at 567,715 in 2019 — that is 17 human beings with no permanent housing for every 100,000 Americans. Considering the current state of the world, the coronavirus has the potential of worsening the situation.

Americans also deal with mental health issues. The Mental Health First Aid organization reports that almost half of the population will experience a mental health problem during their lifetime, and only 41% of people usually seek help. This isn’t exclusively a western problem, but a global one.

The point is, there are always people who need help, and there are more of them during challenging times, such as economic crises and global pandemic. While the police are trained to handle all sorts of conflicts, some situations may require a different approach. The city of Denver chose integrity and practicality over-policing. The goal should be to assist a vulnerable individual with respect and know how to provide medical care. Those people require help involving social services, not a police car pulling up next to them. Only if the interaction turns risky, a police officer should be dispatched.

Programs like STAR and CAHOOTS present the opportunity to assist an individual who is in the middle of a mental health crisis and provide help, as opposed to involving the police and risking that person’s life. And based on the results reported by these two programs, this approach is quite effective — not to mention humane.

The police structure can be changed or modified at the very least. It doesn’t mean that the institution will be removed as a whole, but the evidence shows that we need a change. Replacing police officers with specialists who are better fit to handle certain situations, such as homelessness, is an excellent idea. If we look at Denver and Eugene, this model works — and it saves the taxpayers money.

We are human beings. We need to treat other people better. Force isn’t always the answer.