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Mayor Regina Romero recently said the Community Safety, Health and Wellness Program had “moved from an idea to a program we are ready to implement.â€� ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ has promised it will usher in reforms to tackle issues such as mental illness and poverty, including an alternative form of policing that could save lives.

But the city remains far from ready to make those promises a reality: There are few specific initiatives in the works, program leaders have not fully identified service gaps to fill, and city social workers — who will form the backbone of the community safety program — have yet to be hired.

“We don’t have all the answers to all of the resources that we need,â€� said Liana Perez, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s deputy city manager who has been at the helm of developing the program. “We have our conceptual ideas, and we know what exists; we just don’t know what doesn’t exist that would be helpful as we move forward.â€�

Officials just appointed former Ward 3 chief of staff Sarah Launius as the program’s first director and set aside millions of dollars to help her develop new initiatives. With less than a month on the job, she is sorting out the basics — such as hiring office staff and overseeing public outreach efforts — as the program nears its second birthday.

Plans to help at-risk ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ans largely consist of general ideas to partner with unspecified community organizations and fill unidentified service gaps in existing city programs.

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ also doesn’t have a strategy to kick-start one of the central pieces of the program — infusing social workers into the law enforcement system to aid families in crisis and individuals who are mentally ill.

“We’ve been talking about this for a year and a half. We’ve gone through one-and-a-half budget cycles on it,� Councilman Steve Kozachik said. “We don’t need people sitting around trying to create mission statements. We need to get them on the ground and get them out on the street.�

No social workers

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ has devoted $1.7 million in general fund money to cover the community safety director’s $100,000 salary and staff her office with eight yet-to-be-hired social workers, or “navigators,â€� who are expected to be the driving force behind many initiatives.

That includes the alternative form of policing that’s been a core promise of the program since its inception. The idea is that unwell or otherwise vulnerable suspects will be less likely to contribute to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s soaring crime rate down the line if they have resources, experts and treatment available.

“If some guy is strung out on opioids, that may manifest itself as a law enforcement issue when he burglarizes a house and steals your computer, but really the underlying cause is what we’re trying to get to,� Kozachik said. “So, (the goal is) mainly treating the cause instead of criminalizing the person for something that is really treatable.�

Navigators will help at-risk residents get resources like drug treatment for someone who overdosed in a park, for example, and then follow up with them to make sure their needs are being met.

It still might be some time until the staffers are ready to go, however. ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ still needs to find, hire and train them — a process that could be lengthy because of the mental health know-how required for the role.

Even when that’s done, the city will only have just started. Navigators don’t respond to emergencies alongside police, so another large swath of front-line social workers will likely need to be hired before that effort can fully begin.

Officials admit they have yet to work out the details, and numerous questions remain as to how the staple initiative will work, though some said the city just needs to get the ball rolling and sort out the details as things progress.

“How can we guarantee safety, and what are the protocols? Do we do an arrest and then some social worker comes out, or if someone agrees to talk with social workers do we (not do the arrest)?� said Councilman Paul Cunningham, who used to do similar work as a juvenile probation officer. “There are these nuanced questions and that’s the stuff where I’m like ‘there’s no right answer to that, we just have to put people in the field and do it.’ We just need to start doing it.�

Launius said she is not sure what form the alternative policing effort will take and that she is still reviewing the options with public safety department officials.

First line or “co-responding� social workers may not even be included in the initiative when it’s finalized, for example. Meanwhile, city staff are mulling a third option that would require even more specialists before it’s ready to go.

“A more specialized non-emergency case management option could be something like a behavioral health specialist unit that responds to high 911 utilizers with significant behavioral health challenges,� Launius said. “Anecdotal data suggests that more involved case management than what a navigator would typically provide is likely a better fit. This is just an example of one potential avenue.�

Launius hopes to announce her plan for the initiative this summer. It’s unclear if the needed mental health staff will be hired by that time.

Broad program, vague plans

Alternative policing is just one small piece of the program’s overall goal “to address the root causes of violence and crime.� The mission is so broad that it could include anything from the creation of job opportunities in high-crime neighborhoods to partnering with a company that can repair out-of-code homes before the owner ends up on the street.

The program will have to work with at least seven city departments to launch the types of initiatives officials have in mind, ranging from the 911 call center to planning and development services to the housing department.

“It is more expansive than any single city department or any single community organization,� Launius said. “The notion of community safety, health and wellness is intentionally broad to really help set the city up for improved coordination across departments and with strategic community partners to really focus tailored responses to the needs of our community.�

That coordination includes expanding programs that already exist such as ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Collaborative Community Care, a partnership between the fire department and ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Medical Center that proactively helps residents who frequently call 911.

The partnership, also called TC-3, aims to reduce the number of fire or ambulance calls that don’t require an emergency response. Staffers help residents with chronic illnesses get long-term disease management, for instance, something that mirrors community safety’s policing goals.

“We already do that really well through our TC-3 team,� Launius said. “What we’re looking to do is be able to expand that type of tailor-made response to a broader cross section of the community and not just folks who are necessarily high-call volume generators through the 911 system.�

Launius didn’t say how that cross section of the community will be identified if it’s not through the 911 system, but added that Place Network Investigations may also be expanded under the new program.

The investigations are part of a strategy adopted by the police department last year that involves using data to pinpoint where crimes take place. Police can then increase their presence in those areas, work with locals to figure out why crime is so high and team up with other city offices to tackle the core problems.

“I think where we will be a critical partner is looking at not only how to support cross-departmental efforts in the PNI teams, because it will be focused in geographical areas where there’s been historical high crime, but I think we will also be really critical in partnering with community partners that may not already have relationships with TPD or TFD that might be working in the area,� Launius said.

The community safety program’s role in bolstering those efforts is far from fleshed-out. Officials have not identified specific service gaps that need to be filled, let alone begun making plans to fill them.

Launius is in the process of hiring a 911 data analyst to remedy that issue. ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ is also gathering information through a public survey, though it’s just the latest in a series of public outreach efforts conducted over the past year.

“We’re hitting the ground running as fast as we can because the need is significant,� said Launius, who is only a few weeks into her new position. “If I were to tell you that we have it all figured out right now, that would be premature because we’re continuing to really hear from the community and fine-tune some of our analyses both internally and externally to make sure we have the right approach across the board.�

Promising developments, Housing First

The community safety program is set to partner with local organizations that will come under the umbrella of services coordinated by the program. Officials have not named any groups as of yet, but ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ is preparing to dole out nearly $4 million in grants to fund the partnerships.

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ received a “high volume of applicantsâ€� for the federally funded grants, which were expected to be awarded about a week ago but are now delayed until Feb. 18.

Launius hopes some of the winners can provide money management training for underprivileged ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ans or behavioral health resources that her social worker staff could use to fill service gaps in other programs.

Deputy City Manager Perez described the community safety program as the “dotted line� that will connect all of the departments and local organizations participating in the efforts. The eight navigators who will staff Launius’ office will be the ones tasked with drawing that line, however, so it’s unclear who will pull the pieces together before they come on board.

The new director also has at least one shining example of success she can look toward as she builds her staff and crafts new program initiatives: Housing First.

The housing effort was launched under the banner of the community safety program in 2020 and has since found permanent housing for nearly 1,000 homeless ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ans.

More recently, Launius and Housing First director Brandi Champion announced efforts to open new shelters and create designated homeless encampments that can contain the growing crisis in the city. They also discussed plans to build a joint office with El Rio Community Health Group and the police department to centralize local homeless resources.

Launius said the success of that effort indicates what the community safety program can achieve once it has a more defined game plan and appropriate staff.

“I think that looking at the build-out of the Housing First team is a great example in terms of the work that they have already accomplished,� Launius said.

City officials are confident that Launius has the skills to pull the program together and are hopeful that her recent hiring is a big step in the right direction.

Still, they admit the new director is in uncharted waters and that structuring the massively complex community safety program will not be an easy task.

“There’s no magic manual on how to roll out a community safety program — we’re really starting from scratch,� Councilman Cunningham said. “The hard part is, well how do you develop a standard operating procedure? How do you develop this manual and this program specifically? The answer truthfully is nobody knows. Nobody wants to admit that nobody knows, but nobody really knows.�

Launius expects the program to be “much expanded in about three months’ time.� For now, she plans to continue working with city and community partners to figure out the best way forward.