LOS ANGELES — Today, Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez hosted a presentation in Council chambers by a delegation of leaders from Denver’s Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) program to showcase an innovative care-first model for responding to crisis situations.
As the City of Los Angeles continues to explore alternative models for crisis response, the Office of Councilmember Hernandez hosted the delegation for a three-day visit. Over the past week, the group met with City and County officials, participated in a panel with community organizers and advocates, provided a briefing for Mayor Karen Bass, and met with Fire and Police dispatchers to discuss how they’ve integrated unarmed, trauma-informed response teams into their 9-1-1 dispatch system.
“I brought the STAR team to Los Angeles to showcase a municipality that has scaled up their alternative crisis response to meet the needs of their city,” said Councilmember Hernandez. “In one year, they’ve gone from a pilot program covering 9 percent of their city to scaling up to service the entire City of Denver. So I hope that this can be the beginning of us being able to work closer together to be more nimble and responsive to meet the needs of our own city. We’re at a critical juncture in Los Angeles and it’s time for us to capitalize on the momentum to make a transformative investment in alternative models of community and clinician led crisis response.”
“For the past 55 years, we’ve had three options when someone calls 9-1-1. We can send a police car, a fire truck or an ambulance,” said Andrew Dameron, Director of Emergency Communications for the City and County of Denver. “Now in Denver, we have a fourth option. Our dispatchers can send a civilian team to provide a more appropriate, more trauma-informed approach.”
About Denver STAR
The Denver Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) program deploys Emergency Response Teams that include Emergency Medical Technicians and Behavioral Health Clinicians to engage individuals experiencing distress related to mental health issues, poverty, homelessness, and substance abuse. Since its initial launch in the City of Denver in 2020, the program has been expanded to provide service to the entire city with a total of five units, ten clinicians, and ten medics/EMT’s.
Between January 1st, 2022 and July 1st, 2022, STAR responded to 2,837 calls for service. These calls would have otherwise been dispatched to police or EMS and were more appropriately handled by a civilian team who were able to provide resource connection or crisis intervention. The team has never had to call for backup due to a safety issue.