It’s a sunny day with blue skies in downtown Boulder. Police officers Keith Steinman and Ross Maynard walk the green lawns in and around the bandshell, where people experiencing homelessness spend much of their time.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” they ask as they stop to talk to people wrapped in blankets on the ground.
Steinman and Maynard are part of the Boulder Police Department’s Homeless Outreach Team, which spends their days connecting with people who are in some way at risk.
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“Officers spend their time doing other things because they’re dealing with the same person over and over again,” Steinman said.
They talk about how even when arrested on relatively minor charges, officers are often released quickly after completing paperwork.
“Obviously, the criminal justice response to homelessness isn’t necessarily working the way people thought it would, so we need to think of other ideas,” Maynard said. “Otherwise, all of our police officers would just be spending their time arresting homeless people on warrants instead of providing services in their homes and neighborhoods.”
It also provided training for executives. Steinman said she was frustrated by people leaving things in downtown parks.
But he said some of the people he’s met now “don’t know if they’re coming or going home.”
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“When you’re on this side, you realize that probably the only thing they have is something that bears their name,” he said.
Many of the people he recognizes are hurt by their past or other issues.
“This is the dregs of society here. Like I said, these people have been traumatized. They’ve had a lot of trauma. They’ve had more trauma in their childhood than most people experience in their lifetime. “I’ve been through a lot,” he points out. “These are people who have been released from foster care. Many of them have traumatic brain injuries, fetal alcohol syndrome. Many of them have acute mental illnesses and things like that.”
Colorado’s mental health care system ranks low compared to other states, but other states often have little to brag about. Across the country, the lack of services for people has worsened year after year due to a lack of funding for programs that were meant to replace large facilities that were closed amid concerns about the rights of people in crisis. What has been replaced are jails and prisons, hospitals and courthouses, police and sheriff’s deputies.
Congress has been making efforts recently, but things started slowly about a decade ago when the shortcomings were fully realized.
“(They) said you really need to get treatment and get mental health services, but did they really fund anything? No, they weren’t right,” Maynard said. said.
The two officers are trying to connect with people in parks and squares. They often end up being street counselors in a sense. Sometimes the message gets across, and sometimes it doesn’t. It may take some time. “Slowly but surely, especially as life happens to them, one day they alert you and they say, hey, what is that housing structure talking about?” Steinman says.
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People with mental health issues say the thought of a uniformed police officer can be a trigger for some people. That’s why some response vehicles, such as his STAR van in Denver, don’t include responding officers. But Maynard points out his own perspective.
“Social workers can be a trigger,” he says. Maynard said these are people who have disappointed others over the years and have been involved in traumatic events such as being separated from their families in childhood.
“The caseworker didn’t try to help me at all,” says Ashley, 34, who was near the Central Park bandshell.
She has had mental health and addiction issues since her teens, which she blamed on over-prescription medication from her psychiatrist. Recently, she had been battling other drugs including methamphetamine just three days earlier.
“I want more stability and more involvement with my kids,” she says. She had lost custody of her two sons.
“I can do well for a few months, but then I have bouts of depression and it’s hard to get back to normal. I also have a personality disorder called borderline personality disorder, which can’t be resolved with medication. However, after losing the car she was sleeping in due to theft by a former colleague, she is hoping for a better place to live. She said: “I really want to take steps to get back on my feet and get housing.”
Steinman and Maynard discussed housing ideas with her and stressed the importance of making commitments before parting ways. “We transport them to their appointments and transport them to court so they can stay on track to be able to stay in housing and keep their jobs,” Steinman says. . Although it is outside the scope of normal police work, the department is cooperative.
Not only is the current system not working, but it appears to be expensive to go to court and care for people in crisis in prisons and hospitals, so they have to pay for the mentally ill and addicts. I would like to see more options, such as services. “The cost is that we, as a caring society, simply need to either A. get them into housing and help them get the treatment, resources and comprehensive services they need, or B. come up with new ideas. “Through proper medical care, strong mental health services, and intervention at a younger age, people can be helped much earlier than it would be if we just provided them,” Maynard said.
Since the late 1990s, many states, including Colorado, have struggled with civic engagement efforts and lacked resources. There are 72 short holds for people in crisis, called “M1 holds” for people with mental illness.
“People are literally getting off the M1, jumping into Arapahoe traffic and coming back, and it’s like nothing happened, it’s funny,” Maynard said.
For many people, it is a last resort if they have no choice. Law enforcement agencies are grappling with the effects of an underfunded mental health system. Maynard believes the justice system should have more ability to push people into treatment.
“We need to put that process in place,” Maynard said. We prey on each other and prey on each other because that’s what we have here. ”
