Working group expects Amherst's CRESS fully operational in February

July 27, 2021 | Nasya Blackshear
nblackshear@thereminder.com

AMHERST – The Amherst Community Safety Working Group (CSWG) has proposed a new alternative program to public safety services currently provided by the Amherst Police Department (APD).

Founded in 2020, the CSWG was originally brought forward by the Racial Equity Task Force. “It was the Racial Equity Task Force who actually wrote it and proposed it to the Town Council and they decided to make it one of the goals for the town manager, who was then tasked with pulling it all together,” explained CSWG Co-Chair Ellisha Walker.

The group was then tasked with creating alternative programs for community safety with an emphasis on the Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) within the community.

“We began meeting the second week of November 2020,” began fellow CSWG Co-chair Brianna Owen. “We did a lot of forums to hear from the community and connect with key stakeholders in the community to amplify lived experiences so we can really hear those experiences and weave them into recommendations.”

This led to the proposal of the Community Responders for Equity, Safety, and Service, or the CRESS Program. “The CRESS program is designed to respond to non-violent calls,” explained Owen. She also emphasized the fact that they would only respond to non-violent calls and the APD would still respond to more violent matters.

The CRESS program expects to be fully functional by February 2022 with a minimum of eight responders. “In the report, we put forward, we emphasize that there should be teams of two and one person with a behavioral health background, whether that be a social worker, licensed social worker, or anything that you can classify under behavioral health,” Owen explained.

These eight responders would ideally be reached on a number separate from the APD’s. “We’re hoping that CRESS will have their own phone number so that people can call them directly,” began Walker. “However, if someone were to call 911 in a pinch or not know the CRESS number, that those calls will be directed to CRESS as they should be.”

After extensive research and discussions with BIPOC community members,  the CSWG found six key themes in their experiences with the APD.

“Fear, dehumanization by the police, distrust of the police, lack of APD cultural competency, lack of diversity in the police force, and police disrespect for communities of color,” according to their May 2021 final report.  

“The hope for the group is that this public safety service really serves everybody and that there’s an emphasis on a service that embodies anti-racism,” said Owen.

While Amherst isn’t the first town in the Pioneer Valley to propose an alternative program similar to CRESS, it will be the one to set a precedent. Walker mentioned, “There are places who haven’t even gotten this [program] off the ground. So we understand that we’re sort of setting a precedent here, but we want to come at it with a full commitment, with full funding, and to provide the town with a program that’s actually going to work. We don’t want to set it up for failure.”

Funding has been an uphill battle, the CRESS committee said, with an initial proposed budget of $130,000.

“As you can tell by the amount of funding that we’ve gotten for the first year of CRESS, it’s been a bit difficult to challenge the status quo with town officials, but I would say that we’ve been successful with convincing the Town Council, the town manager, why this, this program is so important,” said Owen.

This budget could be a reflection of how people perceive the CRESS program. “I think that sometimes, from the outside looking in, this is like us trying to get rid of the APD, but that’s not the goal,” explained Walker. “The goal is to make sure that there are public safety services for everybody and that they are equitable and that they are accessible and that they are entrusted within the community.”

CRESS is only the beginning, Owen added. “Community safety is this intersectional topic, and for the first time, so many lived experiences have been able to be heard through the CSWG  and we hope to look over the APDs policies and procedures as we continue with the second part of our charge that’s due in November,” Owen said.

Share this: