After responding to 500+ calls in year 1, Aurora Mobile Response Team begins new year of operations
The Aurora Mobile Response Team, which provides an alternative response in handling behavioral health crises, is beginning its second year.
"This program has been great," said Tim Wagner, a crisis response team officer with Aurora police. "Over the last year they've taken a lot of weight off of patrol's shoulders."
AMRT pairs a licensed mental health clinician with a paramedic and sends them to scenes where people are experiencing a behavioral health crisis to provide crisis intervention and de-escalation services.
Wagner says it's a valuable tool. "This gives people a non-police response to something that maybe they didn't even want cops for in the first place," he said.
Courtney Tassin, the Crisis Intervention Program Manager, says her teams have been busy. In one year, they have responded to 519 calls, serving 530 people. That not only helps vulnerable people, but also has saved the city money.
"We've actually accumulated a cost reallocation of about $24,000 by putting police back into service," she said.
This started off as a six-month pilot program, but the Aurora City Council approved more funds for the program after the pilot period ended.
Funding will once again run out at the end of the 2022 but both Tassin and Wagner hope that the council will find funding to not only continue the program but expand it.
"Like every other job in the workforce right now, we need more of them," said Wagner.
