The widespread attention was a little unexpected, but made sense in the wake of Floyd’s murder as communities demanded changes to policing, said Vinnie Cervantes, director of Denver Alliance for Street Health Response. Floyd’s murder prompted widespread conversations and critique of the nation’s criminal legal system, which police and protesters alike have said is too often used to handle non-criminal problems like mental health and addiction.
The program’s managers hope to scale the program up to six vans by April as part of the expansion allowed under the new contract. As of Thursday, three vans were providing services citywide from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day. Although the program was constrained to downtown Denver during its pilot, it has since expanded to cover the whole city.
Most of STAR’s calls for service come through Denver 911, where dispatchers are trained to send the STAR van for appropriate needs. But about a third of calls are from Denver police officers who responded to a call and determined it would be better handled by STAR.Although the program began under the umbrella of the Denver Department of Public Safety, in January it was moved under the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment.
In the first four months, the team responded to 190 calls serving a broad variety of needs and people.
That is a good idea. Most of the time you don’t need guns and testosterone. But when you do don’t get it wrong
30+ years ago there used to be vans that would drive around and pickup all the drunks passed out downtown and take them to detox. Does that still happen?
Denver Health may see an increase in 'unarmed health experts' in the ER.
Yes yes yes yes!! This is such a needed policy
San Francisco spends $100k per year per homeless person. That, and the lack of enforcement of any drug or petty crime laws is why they get more homeless junkies every week.
This should end well