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After nearly 20 years as a Longmont Police Patrol Officer, Sgt.Andrew Feaster decided traditional law enforcement practices were not helping those battling mental illness and associated drug issues.
“I was at a point in my career, I was ready to step out of patrol and challenge myself in a different way,” Feaster, 43, said. “I just have seen enough of how mental health and drugs were playing a role in what I was seeing out there.”
“I just got tired of throwing jail at those problems,” Feaster said.
He had worked as a liaison between the city’s emerging Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program and a specialized Co-Responder (CORE) team. Both were part of a new approach to on-the-ground policing in that officers teamed up with clinicians and medical professionals to divert people with behavioral health conditions away from jail to places where they could get immediate help.
Feaster said he liked what he saw from both efforts and was asked to help oversee the CORE program. “It was exactly what I was looking for,” he said. “It was taking a new way to tackle an old program and it was still like patrol work in that you are still on the streets, helping people,” Feaster said.
A CORE team is composed of a specially trained police officer, a behavioral health clinician, and a paramedic. Each of the city’s three CORE teams respond to 911 calls for service and from other officers who see a situation that needs a CORE response, Feaster said. Other times a friend or a relative will call for the team, he said.
“We’ve been out in the community for a while now,” Feaster said, “and we have sometimes seen people who need help multiple times and those around them know us and trust us enough to call us for help,” Feaster said.
Once on the scene, CORE members apply their specialized skills to provide triage and assessment and get individuals to a place for help, Feaster said. The strength of the CORE team is that each member brings a different perspective on a health crisis and each works to come up with a consensus on the best course of treatment, he said.
“Those different outlooks bring something unique to the work,” Feaster said. “And it usually works out best for the individual.”
CORE teams all have individual tasks to do at the scene, which are chaotic and tinged with danger, he said. “Sometimes individuals are suicidal, homicidal, or in some other situation,” Feaster said.
The police officer’s job is to make sure dwelling is secure and the individual is not a danger to themselves or others. The paramedic checks for medical issues as the clinician assesses the individual’s mental state, he said.
Before being added to a CORE roster, paramedics and clinicians are given police training, as all are paid members of Longmont Public Safety, Feaster added. “It can still be a volatile situation, so they have to be prepared for that,” he said.
The team then decides the best avenue to treat the individuals. CORE teams have developed relationships with several local health care facilities including Mental Health Partners and Centennial Peaks Hospital, who take CORE team referrals. Feaster said.
Jail and a visit to the local emergency room are usually the last resort for the CORE team, he said. “Jail is a horrible environment for people” in a behavioral crisis, Feaster said. The wait for treatment at an ER sometimes takes hours, he said.
Last year, the CORE teams responded to 1,365 calls for service and conducted 5,000 contacts in the community, Feaster said. They also conducted 2,300 follow ups which are probably the most important part of the job.
“We want to check in with people and ask them how we can advocate for them,” Feaster said. “We want them to trust us, and call us if they have a problem.”
Longmont’s approach has garnered keen interest from outside agencies, who want to get help to those in a crisis while freeing up officers for traditional police duties, he said.
Locally, officials are pondering if the CORE teams could operate on a 24/7 basis. Currently, CORE teams work 10-hour shifts, four days a week, Feaster said. By July, he hopes each CORE team will be fully staffed.
A round-the-clock operation is being evaluated, City Manager Harold Dominguez recently told the city council. “That’s part of the conversation we are having,” Dominguez said.
“We are evaluating call volumes … and making sure we have the appropriate staffing,” he said. “Essentially, we want to get to a point where we have a 24-hour operation.”
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