 I'm also going to put on the live transcript so we should be able to go so we're here this evening to get some feedback and input from the community on how we have moved so far with the implementation team. And I'm going to do a brief introduction quickly by introducing the members here. We have town counselor Alicia Walker who's former community safety working group co chair like to say hello Alicia. Hi everyone and thank you for being here tonight. And Brianna Owen former co chair of the community safety working group. Thank you everyone thank you so much for joining us this evening. And Mike curtain the dispatch supervisor. Hi everyone. Chief Scott Livingstone. Hello everybody and thanks for coming tonight. And the fire chief Tim Nelson. Thanks for coming by. And the captain of operations Gabe Ting. Good evening everyone. Thank you for coming up here and joining us. And so I'm going to turn it over to Alicia for a quick statement. So I again just wanted to thank everyone for coming out today. We have a small slide show prepared for you all to give you an update as to where we are in the implementation of the crest department. We just wanted to make a disclosure that all of this information that we are giving you today is information that we have all agreed upon but is still subject to change depending on. We are in the process of hiring the director who we are looking for their input on many things. And we are looking at how well as we expect things to need to be shifted throughout the implementation of the department. So to just keep that in mind that we are still working through everything. Thank you so much for that. And we have former community member. Russ Vernon Jones, who has joined us. Russ, would you like to say hello to everyone. Hi everybody. I'm just saying it's a continues to be an honor to work at putting all this together and have a great team to work with. So now I'm going to go ahead and share my screen with the slide. The PowerPoint. And can we all see the PowerPoint. So as we said earlier, let's meet the implementation team. These are the implementation team members. The implementation team was tasked with determining the scope of crests the relationship building a relationship with police fire and EMS identifying calls directed to crests the project number of crest responders and the size of the department, developing the job descriptions and of applicants reviewing communication protocols, the development of outreach efforts and creating training requirements for crest staff and developing program details, including policies and procedures. The reason for creating this department is to provide community safety services in situations that don't involve violence or serious crime, it will create a civilian unarmed alternative to calls that might otherwise require response from the police department. The purpose is to ensure that any public safety response is an anti racist equitable just unfair, and that we offer preventative services that get at the root of assisting our community members to avoid necessitating police public safety involvement in the first place. So, Chris is really funded. We have $250,000 of ARPA funds that have been allocated for startup costs, there has been 90,000 year marked from the state. We recently received a grant from the DPH, which we are applied for with the African Mental Health Association sorry about that that's backwards on there for 450,000 which splits the cost for $250,000 for startup costs, all of the positions will be funded through tape, town funds through the budget process. Chris will be located on the third floor of the bank center. There will be a direct one full time director eight community responders that will be full time full time administrative assistant. A full time but temporary project manager and a full time but temporary transitional systems coordinator. Our hiring timeline, we hope to have the director and project manager positions filled by the end of February, and the transitional systems coordinator position in March. We also hope to create and post the community responders and administrative assistant positions shortly after the hiring of the director. The community responders will work in teams of two. Our goal is to have one responder with clinical mental health expertise and one with a de escalation mediation skills on each team. We will also seek to hire responders with a variety of experience and expertise including homelessness substance abuse and working with you. And at any of time if anyone from the implementation team wants to jump in, feel free to do so. Training, we expect that the initial training of Chris responders will take about eight weeks. We've included but it's not limited to de escalation mediation training, understanding and knowing the local social services and agencies, knowing how to use the communication equipment, record keep our record keeping from town bylaws how to identify when to call a PD or EMT or a Amherst fire department. And of course first aid and CPR, equity awareness and social justice considerations with regards to race class disability religion LGBTQ plus persons age homelessness etc. is a preliminary list that will be expanded and training will be continuously continuous after the initial training. And this is fully staffed with eight responders we expect to be able to provide 24 seven coverage in response. A team of responders will be on duty at all times of day and night, except from 1am to 9am on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. When a team will be on call. The on call team will respond in person if needed. In the period of the week with the fewest calls the on call arrangement is necessary because eight responders is not enough to provide full 24 seven on site coverage and our information we worked with leap who were was our consultant and they went through and what's the word I'm looking for Russ. This is your thing here. You can call the call log to kind of determine what calls and what time of the calls it's necessary to have the most coverage. Accessing the crest department can happen in multiple ways. You can call the published number that crest will have we can you can call 911 and ask for crests. You can call the Amherst police department business line and ask for crests there's walk ins at the bank center, and all calls will be sent by the Amherst communication centers that currently dispatches EMT fire and APD crest responders will not be sent to situations that involve violence weapons or criminal activity dispatch will be required to send police officer to those calls. The dispatch will be trained to route calls to the appropriate public safety department. So let's ask if you would like to be connected to crests if this is one of a call that falls under the categories of nonviolent, no criminal activity, and so forth. Crests and APD will stand ready to assist each other if needed if the APD arrives at a situation that they believe could be best handled by crests, or with the assistance of crests APD officers can request crests responders join them, or take over for them. If crests responders arrive at a situation and stuff that is dangerous or a violent situation weapons are present, or a serious crime isn't occurring they will call for the Amherst police department. The town of Amherst and ADMHA applied jointly for a DPH grant, and we are awarded funding the grant will enable ADMHA to establish an office in Amherst and provide services to community members. One of the major functions of crests will be to connect community members to appropriate local services, including ADMHA and other agencies. The ADMHA stands for African diaspora mental health association. Vehicles and equipment the crests responders will be equipped with two dedicated electric vehicles large enough to be stocked with first aid and other supplies to provide emergency transport for clients. They will also be equipped with communication equipment that will enable them to be an open communication with the communication center and allows dispatch to know whether or not they are currently engaged. Crests will have its own record management system in which confidential case notes will be maintained separate records will be kept that enable just dispatch to see whether crests has previously responded to any caller or address. Appropriate data showing numbers and times of calls types of services needed and demographics of community members served will be kept for the crest activity. This will enable appropriate compliance with public records requests and appropriate reporting to the town. Commitment we are committed to successfully implementing the crests program we expect to learn from our experience as we begin implementation. We expect that we will need to make some changes as we gain experience. So one of the things that is most important in this process because this is for the community is that we have feedback from community members. So we are now going to open up to questions and or comments or feedback from the community. So I'm going to ask if anyone in the community has a question or comment in regards to the crest program. Hi so welcome. Could you just state what town you live in. Hi, my name is Zoe Crabtree and I live in Amherst speak to the way that the hiring process is going currently for the director and implementation manager. Have we gotten applications. Are we looking for more outreach. How is it looking. So there are a considerable amount of folks for the implementation project manager has fewer applicants because it's not a temporary because it's not a full time position it's temporary, but we do have a qualified candidate set of applied and so we are actually interviewing for the three candidates tomorrow. And the crest director, the hiring committee has just been formed and so the applications will be forwarded we did. There are several individuals who applied for that position. Thank you. You're welcome. Sister Halla Lord. Yes, thank you. I believe I heard you say when there are weapons involved, the police department will be called. My question is, could the crest team also be involved because often sometimes mental illness and a weapon come hand in hand, and maybe the, the combination of both expertise could be helpful to de-escalate that moment. I think we can take it to someone from the group want to take that. I can take it from a perspective of the initial response. So, because of the potential dangerous situations that both police officers, EMT people, and the crest responders may have to respond to anything that involves something of a dangerous, potentially dangerous, or when we know there's a threat to the initial response will be from a police officer and I think as Jen Moisten mentioned earlier in the PowerPoint presentation, once the police officers establish and or secure us the scene, and it's something that the crest responders could handle and they will absolutely be asked to come to the scene to assist with that. We do have to err on the side of caution and safety so the initial response would have to be for a police officer. Thank you. So you're saying there's, I'm sorry, a follow up question. There's no opportunity for both to arrive at the same time. I'm comfortable with that. Quite frankly, you know, and things will and potentially could change in the future once we establish protocols. Again, I think we've all come to the agreement that you know this is going to be, and we've used the term a living document until we can really establish what we are comfortable with for the crest responders to respond to but initially anything involves, you know, something of a dangerous or physical altercation or certainly a weapon it would be initially a police response. Thank you. You're welcome. I'm sorry I was muted. Deborah or just come came into the room that could you please state the town that you're in. Hi, I'm in Amherst. Hello everyone thank you so much for all the work you're doing Deborah for era I was on the CSWG and one of the folks that recommended the crest program so I have several questions. I can probably take some notes in terms of what all the questions I have. So one, I, you know, it kind of went quick, but when will it be in place so you know if you all can kind of go over, you know the timeline, a little bit more, I would appreciate it but when will it be up and running is my first question. Second, have you all identified who's going to be the one providing training to the crest responders because that's going to be critical, you know, who's going to be really making sure that they won't be responding in a way that you know obviously compassionate and equitable that social justice fate focused that obviously relates to dealing with all the different aspects of the people that they're going to be helping out, you know, and obviously how to relate to you and, you know, and so on so forth. That was my second and my third is important. I was happy to hear that there's going to be, you know, several different ways to connect with crest. But what is going to be the way to roll out right the marketing that's going to be key, you know, how are you going to be letting people know that crest exists. I want to hear more about that. I want to really get some details on that. And then lastly, how is crest going to be assessed, right, because obviously if people are going to use it. How is the budget going to be increased how are the numbers going to increase and so on so forth but obviously, in order for that to happen like I said it's going to be important in terms of the advertisement and the marketing roll out. So, those are my questions. Thank you. No, thank you so much. Miss Ferrera, Russ Vernon Jones, do you want to take the first question please in regards to, I think it's the timeline correct. Yeah, the timeline, you know, it's hard to know for sure, but we're hoping we have the director hired, ideally within the month. And we want the director involved in helping to hire the community responders. So we would move very quickly once we have a director to be hiring community responders. But realistically, it's, you know, likely to be in March before we have people hired and if we then take two months for training. You know, we're looking at April or May at the earliest that we would begin responding to calls. We wish it were quicker but we're doing the best we can and we think it's important to pick the best people and have the director involved in some of the key decisions of staff about staff and hiring. Okay, thank you. Yeah, Alicia Briana, do you want to take the training question. As a group we have talked about just the skills that we're looking for people to be trained in but we haven't as a group brainstormed individuals in the community we want to seek out for training so that's something we'll have to consider for future agendas. Yeah, and hopefully you all can also kind of maybe reach out to people. You know, there was, you know, obviously some consultants we use in CSWG, maybe reaching out to folks to really make sure you get the best people possible to provide the training. So the third question is how will we advertise for Crest so I think, you know, part of it will be through having more and more community forums. And once the Crest staff as high like once the directors higher we would obviously, and then implementation project manager one have an introductory to those two new staff members and as the responders come do more community outreach in that way and then, you know, as the group will have to think about and willing to take suggestions and other ways to move forward with advertising. Is there is there funding for that. It would come out of the budget for for the Crest department. Yeah, because I guess that's going to be key like maybe like some commercials, you know, things like that, I mean it's going to need to happen radio ads, you know, going into the community talking to leaders in the community in different ways that obviously the language that we're speaking is going to be a very wide outreach, not just on the website, not just on the newspapers or whatever has to be very multi level outreach. Absolutely. Absolutely. And then you wanted to know how it will be assessed and it is it's hard. If you're looking at it through the fiscal year obviously we won't be able to assess it on the fiscal year portion because once we get started it will be into April or May. But the implementation project manager that is part of their job is to create a measurement make matrix for this program. It will be kind of like forums letting people know about the assessment that how that goes. So this is an alternative public safety department and so everything. There needs to be an open communication line with the community and the department itself. So it we will have several forums throughout this entire this department throughout its lifespan here at the town will have several community forums and Russ. Yeah, Deborah and others I we're taking notes as you say these things and thank you for your input already but we also welcome input. Anybody in the community has folks they want to recommend for us to look at for participating in the training or particular marketing ideas, or even, you know, things you want to be sure included are included in the assessment. Jennifer those can be sent to you right. I can. I can always be reached at my email is moisten MOY ST ONJ at Amherst MA.gov, or you can reach me here at the town manager's office at 413-259-3002. Thank you. Oh you're welcome. Hello Mr. Hartwell. Hello. Well, I'm a resident of Amherst and first, just congratulations and all the work that you guys have collectively put together. And I think, as everybody has said that it's so important to have a really good communications between the PD and the fire department and the, the whole thing to work in unity together. I wanted to ask the question of whether or not have you advertise I think you've already advertised for responders and if so, what kind of response are you getting are you getting enough candidates who look like they would be first, a good proportion who would be first in color and also the kind of people that you're looking for or is this is this a significant challenge of getting enough the candidates because there's a lot of recruitment going on. There is at this moment, we haven't started to advertise for the responders and we are hoping for the input from the director on the job description for the community responders, and then to advertise then. Okay. Oh, you're welcome to have additional questions. No, just that was a main one because I think, I think the team of responders is going to be incredibly important here, the nature and their training and their, and, and, and the trust that they can build with the community. Oh, absolutely. Thank you. Did I just miss Pat I thought she came in and then it looks like you have three hands up Jen. I don't know. Yeah, no I was trying to let Miss Pat come in. Hi Miss Pat. I'm not sure if you know that you're muted or hello. Yes. So first of all, I want to thank all of you for your time. As a former member of CSWG, I'm glad that you're all are working towards launching this program. I remain concerned around overnight shift. I'm feeling that the program is set up to fail already. Some, I still remain concerned to just have one person to do the overnight. It just doesn't, it still doesn't make sense to me. Another question that I have, I have a question actually regarding the communication center. How many people of color currently in our town. I employed to take emergency calls in terms of in the dispatching calls. So I want to leave you, I want to that question to to the chief. I'll defer to the communications director. So we're seeing those folks. So currently we have one gentleman of color from the town of Amherst. And we have two other BIPOC members. And we have another person from Germany, it works up there. So we have a total of total of 12 people on staff. So three are BIPOC. Do we have like bilingual, like Spanish speaking dispatcher? We have three Spanish speaking dispatchers in a German speaking dispatcher. We also have access to a language line, which is basically one button transfer where we can access a language line. Some of the biggest issues we have with like our premier speaking population, our Chinese speaking population. Spanish speaking population in town are to the point, you know, we can communicate, at least figure out what the main problem is and then switch it over to a language line. If we don't have a Spanish speaking dispatcher on duty. And the police department also has several Spanish speaking officers that we can use as resources. And so that I know, are there any staff members who will speak real. There are not. And what is the plan for translation services for Crest program. So anyone can take this question. When you say transmission services, are you talking about radio communications. I'm talking about if somebody from our community where to call for help, and they don't speak English. So that would be. I'm going to speak maybe Chinese or Creole. Okay, yeah. So that would be depending on how the call came into us became via 911. Our first, first action would be to start officers out that direction because we'd have mapping of where the call came from. And so our business line would be a little behind the eight ball they would have to access a language line, determine what the language the caller is speaking, and then proceed from there. So I really push people to use 911 as much as they can, especially people who aren't fluent in English, or Spanish to use the 911 lines, because we have, it's one button touch. We have a language line person we say we believe they're speaking Creole within 30 seconds 45 seconds we have an interpreter on the line. In the meantime, we at least have officers headed that direction to hopefully they get there can try to determine what's going on as well. And so, if somebody didn't call 911, and they don't speak English, and they, you know, they're not Spanish speaking, what would happen if they call alternative number. And so we would, we would have to conference them in on a language line, which would take additional time, because we would not know where that person was calling from initially. So we would take the time to get a hold of the interpreters, figure out the language that people are speaking and then go from there. Thank you. Miss Jennifer. Yes, as the town have translators on hand. If somebody after the, after the crisis, like to, to, are there like, is there a budget for translation for services beyond, yeah. Like when they come in, if somebody were to go to banks community center. Yeah, I think that that right there would. I mean, we haven't really discussed it into to that degree so I'm glad that you brought that up but if they were to walk in and they didn't speak the language and there wasn't anyone available who spoke the language that they were speaking. So we would need to have services so there would have to be some type of translation, either, you know, using of the computer or the translation line, they could possibly send them, we just haven't really thought about it, thought that through all the way yet. Thank you. Yeah. Miss Pat, do you have any other follow up questions. I will wait for other people. Yes, I do. Okay, thank you. And Ian, could you just let us know where what town you live in. Sure. Can you hear me. Yes, we can. I am Ian from Amherst. And I was just wondering about what the relationship will be like between crest. I know this is a town. And institution, but the relationship between crests and the University of Massachusetts or Amherst college. Even that, you know, mass has a sizable police department of its own. Will MPD know is MPD and these conversations are they aware of crests and services and then going back to Deb's question of earlier, will the advertising target students on campus as well. Is there anyone who wants to go ahead and try and answer that question. I mean, I'll take shot at it. It was a little bit broken up on my end. So it sounded like Ian wanted to know that there was going to be a number of crest responders and the UMass, the UMass community. Is that correct Ian. Yeah, essentially what does the UMass police department know about crests and utilizing crests and services. So they certainly know about the program that the town is putting together. We have not broached the topic yet of when crest might be able to respond to the campus community or not we were mostly writing on the Amherst community but I can tell you that the relationship with other departments and the university has been pretty you know the relationship we have with the university police department. University administration has been pretty fluid from the police and in the fire and so, you know, once we get this crests I'm up and running I don't see why there would be any issues with potentially having the crests responders be available in some way shape or form to assist University of Mass Police Department or the UMass administration. I hope that answers your question. Yeah, to the first part and then the second part was just, I guess letting students who are sort of a transient part of the community know about crests during their time here. Yeah, that's the point so I think that would be part of the what Jen spoke with earlier about getting the word out about the crests program. I think Ms. Deb spoke about it as well, making sure that our communication reaches every aspect and every corner of the town and that includes the University of Mass so that if somebody needed information that the crests people could give them that to make sure that they have that information available to them. Russ. Yeah, I, I think at this point we have to say thank you for that question and we will put it on our agenda to think about. I think we, it's, it's hard to know whether we are going to be able to handle calls just from the town and what capacity will have to include the university but we will certainly put on that on our agenda to think about and figure that out so forward. And, you know, the other thing that can be added to that is that a MHA will be here and so it could also be used as a referral from the university to so they are mental health association depending on on on the case but they will offer and will have a transitional assistance coordinator who can help with follow up work or can help with referrals as well. Great, thank you. Oh, you're welcome. Do you have any follow up questions and I know that's it. Great. And so I just want to bring it back to the community to see if anyone else has any other questions or comments or concerns. I mean this is a public of, you know, we are one of the first towns to move this far in our local in our area and so I'm just we're trying to get a good read of what the concerns are from the community and so feedback is really helpful at this time so I'm going to open it back up again. Does anyone have any questions or comments. Miss Pat, do you have additional questions if you do, can you raise your hand please. Miss Kathleen. Welcome Miss Kathleen. Thank you. So I do have a question. And it is about the police responding to incident where there's a weapon involved. And my concern is about the safety of the person, particularly if they're a person of color. And how the police are trained, how the police are trained to de-escalate a situation and not just kill somebody, which is what happens pretty frequently around the country. I'm concerned about the safety of the individual involved and how the police are trained to de-escalate a situation rather than escalate the situation into a killing that could be unnecessary. So we do a number of trainings annually in our agency and de-escalation and I, you know, think that our track record in this Amherst police department speaks for itself. In addition, we have a number of officers on our staff who actually teach de-escalation at the police academies and across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. So, you know, I feel confident in the training that my officers receive. That's not to say that we're perfect and that we wouldn't take or look for additional individuals who may have some expertise in that field as well, but it is a mandatory requirement for training for all police officers in the Commonwealth. And we adhere to all the trainings that are mandated and we go above and beyond that as well. So that's great to know. And what do you do on a regular ongoing basis to just reinforce the training? So, you know, in our own agency, our de-escalation training, it's only mandated for four hours of training each year through the state police training council. But anytime we have any sort of training, whether it's firearms or anything that involves any sort of act where an officer might have to use force, use of force training, we include the de-escalation training aspect. And we do it a number of times a year as an agency. And Gabe, did you want to add to that? I did. I just want to add that, you know, besides the formalized training that we do receive, you know, on a daily basis, you know, we're a small agency. So anytime that there's a critical incident that happens, you know, each shift will have a debrief on it to kind of break down the good and the bad and take lessons from whatever incident that just happened. We also take into account any other local, state and national incidents that happen. We have what we call roll call trainings. So anytime that there's an incident that's really publicized, we'll break it down within our own staff to kind of take a look at it and see what other agencies are doing and what we can do better and where the mistakes are. You know, any incident that happens, whether it's within our department or any other department, we kind of use that as a lesson within itself. So we are constantly training. Oh, thank you very much. That's good to know. Much appreciate it. Thank you for your service to our community. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, Kathleen. Hi, thank you so much. I'm Lev. I work in Greenfield, or sorry, I live in Greenfield, but I work at the Immersed Survival Center in Immersed. And I have two questions, but first off, I just want to thank the implementation team for all of the incredible work in terms of planning things thus far. And also the depth of this presentation and sharing of information and opportunity for comment. I really appreciate that. I have two questions that I have have to do with active outreach kind of beyond the publication of the crest number and it feels like there's a key interaction between the public and in this moment I'm particularly thinking about our local population of people experiencing homelessness and police that happens on the street in the context of, I believe what's referred to as community policing but just folks, police officers being out and about and kind of walking. Will crest responders be doing something similar to that effect? That's my first question. And then my second question is, have there already been any plans or discussions about ways to engage local community organizations such as the Immersed Survival Center or others in terms of a process to connect folks to this new service that's available? Thank you. And so does someone from the implementation team want to answer the first part of her question or her first question, Russ? We haven't made definite plans or written up protocols yet, but we've always said in our conversations that part of what crest responders would deal with the situations that they encounter in the community that haven't necessarily been prompted by a call. So we've got a lot to think through there, but I think that is on our agenda. With regard to outreach, again, we have not tried to make specific plans yet, but we have talked about the importance of building relationships and opening communication with local social service agencies. And many of us are hopeful that we will soon have a director who can begin to put some of these things into practice because it's the sooner they get started, the better. And I just, I want to add to that with ADMHA and coming that that is, that's an organization that we hope to connect the local organizations with as well, too. Thank you so much. And thanks as well to all the community members who have offered comments and questions. It's really helpful to hear this dialogue. So appreciate this opportunity. Thank you. Ms. Kathleen, did you, it's hard to tell your hand is still raised. So I want to make sure it was from previously. And then in the meantime, I'm going to just go ahead and call on Ms. Pat. Okay, so anyone can take this question. Somebody explained to us. If on a busy night, you have three or four calls happening at the same time, and you only have to press responder on duty. And all the four calls or three calls. They are not for police, but for press. How is that going to happen with only two press staff on duty or one staff overnight. Yep. I'm going to say, Alicia, do you want to help answer that? And then I'll go to Mike. Yeah, so I think that we are looking at dispatch protocol in terms of if a situation like this would occur. So one will want to be keeping track of these things because this, this will build our case that we need more responders and that we need more funding to back those responders. So, when and if that happens, we will keep track of that. And then we will be giving the caller options. Hopefully, whether or not they want to wait for a press responder to be available. I think we're talking and thinking about how they can reach them by phone in the meantime, or if they would want the PD to respond. So those would be the options and we would give it. Those options to the caller. But that is also still something that we are working on to figure out to establish the actual protocols that will determine that. And Mike. So, Miss Pat, this is a common occurrence that happens right now we call it we refer to it as stacking calls and dispatch on a bad snowstorm we may have 15 accidents and only three officers sometimes just two officers because they're tied up on calls. They're tied to calls. Depending on the severity of the call. There's times we have mutual aid assets if we really needed to go that direction. Things like noise complaints, Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights, noise complaints sometimes have to wait two hours before somebody we can get an officer out there to free him up. We have limited resources in the police department limited resources fire department. You know, have to be live sometimes our mutual aid partners. I would foresee calls coming into Crest be in the same way we would prioritize him to a certain extent but they're not emergencies. Then we would let the caller know it could be 1520 minutes. Are you okay with that. Would you prefer to speak to a police officer if it's that type of call. It's a call for Crest but it meets the emergency criteria, we would be sitting in an officer anyway so we wouldn't really be a Crest call. So, it's public public safety public service, and there's never enough responders for fire police or EMS so we triage the calls, and we prioritize them so it happens every shift now. I have another question. So, have the implementation team thought about staff burnout and if staff call out. Say you have two staff, who are supposed to show up to work, who are already trained press responder. And then one person called out. So what would happen. Yeah, what we've said so far is that absences, as well as vacation time would be covered by overtime from other trained responders. And we haven't talked beyond that about substitutes, but I just I can say personally I recently had a rather skilled person in the community tell me that they might be willing to be trained as a substitute to be available for some situations. We haven't talked yet about whether that's something we're interested in or it's possible. It's, you raise a great, great question because it is going to be a challenge. You know if the, the flu goes through the Crest Department. It's, it's going to be tough situation. Thank you. Yeah, I don't dominate. I don't want to dominate questions tonight but for my CSWG, I have mixed feelings of how the town allocated funding for Crest program is under funding. So it's set up to fail is the point I'm trying to make that isn't enough staffing to take on this. And I appreciate all of you for your time. But it's not going to work. We don't have enough staffing for it. So, Alicia, I hope being on town council. You can always bring that to the town council. It's not going to work. And I'm a very positive person. It's not going to work. And I hope that the town will be transparent to the community members. Is there, would that be a place on the town website where we can monitor how many calls without identifying anyone like how is this working who is served. And also, where do people take complaints to who, you know, if they have concern around services they're getting from Crest program. If they're looking for services from Crest program, but they were being helped by police and they don't want that. What is the avenue where can community members go and say, I call for Crest, but police ended up showing up and I don't want police. Where do they go for complaints. So there was a couple of questions there, I think. So the last part, I don't know if someone from the PD wants to answer that, but it seems that the police shouldn't be sent the only way if Crest isn't available. It's not a crime or have a violent nature or there's no weapons involved, and they could wait for Crest to be available, but no police officer should be sent if there's not a crime or any foul activity. I don't know if someone from the PD wants to pick up from there. Oh, you're muted chief. That's correct, Jen. So if it's a situation where somebody's just looking for a Crest response and Crest person available, and it's not an emergency situation. There'll be, we've talked about having a process available where they could leave a message emails. Any site, any type of communication for future outreach with either the Crest responders, or another town entity so we've had these discussions we haven't finalized what that would be whether it be emails or voicemails that sort of thing. You know we've talked about having communication available to the Crest responders with cell phones that sort of thing. It hasn't been finalized yet, but we want to make sure that and Alicia and or Brianna can jump in that there is something available to an individual who may just need information and doesn't necessarily need a Crest response. Yeah, so first I just wanted to thank Miss Pat for all of her comments and concerns I think these are really helpful for me and that I'm taking notes and writing these things down and I will be thinking about these things. And that honestly these are not all things that we have talked about as a group. And so I don't have real answers for you, but that I appreciate that feedback and we have. We've talked about things like how will the program be assessed and how will we be able to measure progress. We haven't necessarily talked as far through it as to how will that information be displayed to the community. But I'm very glad that you're saying these things because I will be thinking and talking about these things now moving forward. I don't can barely hear you though Jen. There we go. Look at that. Brianna. I think Alicia summarized what I wanted to say. And, you know, and my guess that to some degree, you know, similar to how the police department has certain things available for the public we would have to come up with some kind of similar equation for Crest, but we still haven't had a full discussion about that yet. So as we move on, and again, part of the reason for having these community forums is because while we are thinking about policy and procedure, the community knows best how they need to be helped and would like to be helped and that's why it's so important to get the feedback. So, Pat, do you have another question for us and did we answer all of your question. Yes, I'm good. All right, thank you. Thank you. And Ms. Ferreira. Hello everyone. So I have a follow up question. And thank you so much again for working on this and answering the question so far. So, you know, as I kind of listened to people and kind of thought more about, you know, Crest response with APD working together. One of the questions that keep popping up in my mind and I would like you all to kind of give thought and I, and I heard you chief Livingstone in terms of like, when there's kind of violent, violent kind of call that APD has to be the first person on the scene. However, I think you all need to think about what if it's, you know, someone who's been homeless that you all know about right and, and, and they haven't been getting the services and then they get to a point where they get violent. Right. So, so that call comes in, you all know it's a frequent flyer right someone that you've had a history with. Wouldn't that be a situation where you would be bringing in Crest with you. You see what I'm saying I think there's going to be a lot of situations like that or if it's a BIPOC person that has been dealing with drugs situation or what have you. You know, even though it might be a violent call, and your automatic response would be APD. I think you all need to think about a protocol or think about a way to really include as much as possible and I think Crest. When, when these press responders are being trained, they need to really kind of be trained about that right how to kind of go in with the APD and how is that going to work and so obviously APD and Crest is going to have to be trained together in terms of how do I they're going to work together. In terms of those things so it's not, it can't be in a silo. So, I think that's, that's the thing I mean you're hearing it from the community and from, from folks that are calling in, in that there's still the same. Right. The fact that the APD is going to be still responding to a big majority of calls. And so how is it that they can work more closely with Crest and make sure that a lot of times it can be a team kind of effort as opposed to just the APD going on. Right. Going out. That's my first question to think about. Well, I'll stop there now. I'll answer. I'll ask my other one so any responses to that. I mean I couldn't agree more with you miss Deb. Those are conversations that we have where, and I think I've said this more than once I, the relationship that the Crest responders the Crest director. They know as we get to know each other, both with the police department and the fire department so there are going to once the Crest responders become established and they know people in the community that they've been responding to and working with. There's going to be many, many times where they're not going to even need a police officer to respond. And there's certainly going to be a lot of times where a police officer may get sent to a call where he's going to be here she is going to be like, Oh, this is something that Crest can handle and press will be called in and vice versa. So, you know, I couldn't agree more with what you stated. Okay. Yeah, and I think that there are, go ahead miss Alicia. Jennifer, I also just wanted to add that I think so when we approached when we first approached trying to figure out how things would be working. We're looking at the Crest being a standalone department. And so I think we worked really hard to figure out what aspects can be separated and I think that was our first main focus. Because a lot of the models that we were looking at were co responder models and we decided that that was not the way we wanted to approach the situation. So again, I think it's, it, this is why these forums are so incredibly helpful for us, because now we can go back as a group and talk about this that we haven't necessarily talked out, talked about in this way like in this approach, because we have been trying to focus more on, okay, which calls can go to Crest, and which calls can go to PD, and we haven't really talked about in which cases, would it be helpful or possible for a co response model to happen. When we were deciding that we didn't want co response. So I think I really appreciate this comment and that this is something again we'll have to go back as a group and talk about more how that could work. And let me just interject real quick. I mean, you know, don't get me wrong because obviously we were part of those discussions and so is that, you know, is WG member, and I totally agree with that there's going to be a lot of non violent ones right it's just going to be Crest and that's, that was our intent. And then obviously the violence but I'm really thinking about the violent, you know, kind of situations, and how those can be, you see I'm saying a co response possibly, or as what the chief is saying if it's already built a relationship, even though there might be something going on but maybe press has the relationship with that, you know, homeless person or the person that's on drugs or what have you right. And so then that it might be Crest, you know, called first and then APD afterwards, you know, so it's going to have to that relationship is going to have to be built so I'm talking about more so right not the non violent ones I'm talking about the ones that are violent that with the potential of press also going in. So I think we need to kind of think about that. Because, you know, like I said, you know, from hearing this forum and obviously from from feedback that we received before and the data that we collected previously, there's a lot of angst still right that the police is going to be responding to, you know, the violence at the incident. So how can we make sure that those can also get the ass the escalated as opposed to, you know, leading to anything worse. And I think that we're trying to look at it as a as a partnership and a way to because there will be circumstances, you know, like for instance, an attempted suicide that affects the people in the household as well and so while the police might have to deal with one aspect of it crest can help support the rest of the family I mean there's lots of different circumstances where crest and the PD will have to work as a team. Exactly. And, you know, unfortunately, we can't predict it to that degree, necessarily at this point it's really hard it's one of these things that we have to move forward with what's the best of training that we have. But hopefully though you know this will serve as Alicia was saying as, as you know food for thought and as you all are thinking about the training for the community responders and for others that are going to be involved in crest and obviously for a PD that this also becomes thought because when you got when you all are doing training, hopefully, you know that will be part of the material shared, along with crest and a PD. Absolutely. Does anyone from the implementation team. Have anything to add to diverse question. Okay. I just want to add that on. You know that's something that we will certainly, we want to keep in mind, because unfortunately, you know without a director without actually putting this into play knows going to be a lot of lessons learned there's going to be a lot of feeling out to kind of make those decisions. So it's a work in progress. You know a lot of the different programs that I've seen across the country have a tiered response. So they have different types of responses. And I think that once this Crest program is in play. You know the fire department the police department and the Christ agency we're all going to work well together and figure that out so we'll be fine. Okay, thank you. My other question is more so again from hearing folks today and questions that they were asking is around, you know, training and obviously there's a training for the press and then I know someone had asked a training question for the PD, which, you know, with the SWG we have talked about it as part of our, you know, part B kind of recommendations. But I think since we are talking about training for press and APD, since APD is going to be responding to the violent incident is to really think more, you know, I hear you all that you all get all the kind of standard training that you need to per the state and so on so forth. But it in terms of what the data that we have collected from BIPOC populations and obviously as you all know the fear that they communicated that they had in terms of interaction with APD, those trainings that you all receive that's that's baseline, you know what I'm saying so it needs to go way beyond in terms of training. So therefore, you know, one of the recommendations that we have, we had talked about was to make sure like even to have and that's something you all need to think about, you know, some type of in house person is going to be really there providing training evaluating assessing how APD is responding to incidents and really kind of going beyond that and going on on, you know, more kind of, you know, more immersed in kind of process with the APD. It cannot continue to just be these one off so these trainings that you all get, you know, that the state and the feds recommend you all to get, you know, we're really asking for something more intensive something more immersive and something more interactive on turn. And I think that, you know, because, as you all know training doesn't work, unless it's something that really is going to be there, you know, on a day that they base that. So, for me, though, that's something else that you all need to think about. That's going to happen. And someone obviously that's also aware of the, what, what the community needs and when I say the community I don't say just one slice of Amherst members, I'm talking about all the community including by pop folks that don't speak English, you know, folks that homeless folks that have all the different issues that we're trying to deal with. So, you know, that, you know, that's something that I'd like you all to kind of, you know, talk to me more about, but I think you already said it but I don't know if you have anything else to kind of share with us that I'm going to defer to Captain Ting and Chief Livingstone for that one. Yeah, that was a lot of information missed out. I can tell you we haven't, we haven't finished our list of all the trainings that we are trying to anticipate press members will be receiving I know we know that it's going to change, and we know that it's going to be extensive. So there's going to be some cross trainings with both police fire and who knows else I mean we I know we're going to get a lot of input from the community about potential people who would be good fits for press police and fire so I don't have an exact answer right now I can tell you that those are discussions that we've had and will continue to have about the exact perfect trainings that we think we can come up with. And again, we keep going back to once the directors in place making sure that the director of the Crest program is a integral part of the trainings and the types of trainings that the Crest members are going to be getting. Okay. Captain Ting did you have anything you wanted to add to that. I think the chief said, said it well. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Well yeah I mean this is something that obviously as you all know we're all very much invested in this so obviously we are going to be looking intently in terms of everything and you know the community is invested and we're going to be following this very closely. Absolutely. Thank you. Thanks. And Mr. Eric, do you have any additional questions. No, no, thanks. I'm good. Thanks. Yeah. And I'm going to invite so back in. Hi everybody. I was thinking based on one of the things that Pat said a few months ago about the way that data on Crest is going to hopefully be available to the community. I just wanted to weigh in a little bit about the way that data on the APD is currently available to the community and provide some feedback on that so that hopefully that can be improved and and also thought about when thinking about how to do data for the Crest format. And right now the call and arrest record information is updated to kind of on a month to month basis in PDF format to the website. It also, at least the last time I looked it went back maybe six months or something and anything before that wasn't publicly posted. So it's really, really awesome. If that data was available in a more malleable format, like an Excel spreadsheet, for example, and one of the things that I did a couple summers ago, just because I know people who have coding skills, to trans like to transform the data in the PDF documents into spreadsheet format so that we could do broader analysis to see what types of calls there were and when they were coming in and things like that. But that was like, you know, a lot of extra work to do in order to get access to public information in a way that was helpful. So I, my understanding is those documents are probably the things that your system automatically export for you, which you know I'm all about having easily created reports. But if there's a way in your system or way to change some of the ways that you're exporting that data in a, in a manner that would make it more accessible to the public, as simple as an Excel spreadsheet. And as, you know, awesome and interactive as a data dashboard for the public. That would be, I think, really, really helpful for folks. So I guess that just leaves. So I know that in our system that we use for the website there's an archive section is are the previous reports from the PD not available after a certain period of time, or they in the archive as well. I'm not sure that the place that we're like the page on the website that has linked call and arrest records doesn't indicate that there is another place to see older pieces but that it may might be hidden in the archive somewhere. Yeah. And then she forgave do you know anything about that. So our records keeping system is old and antiquated. It's 3030 something years old and you know what Gabe and Ron young captain young are the ones that have to really extract all that information with whenever they're requested so gay probably can speak better on that. Now unfortunately this the system that we have. You know doesn't really lend to the issues of today. You know a lot of times the data that we want to extract the mind out of the system is really difficult and cumbersome. A lot of the other requests that I received if I can mine that data. It's usually handpicked. So it takes a great amount of time. It's something that we can extract. We certainly will do our best. But that's not always the case unfortunately. And were you guys working on a new interface for that or. So we're starting to go ahead. I'm sorry. This can say we're starting to look into it. Unfortunately the company that on that we utilize got bought out and the new corporation that's using it isn't really investing too much more into it. So it might be the end of the line for this particular system. So we are starting to look into newer systems that will be able to to focus on a lot of the data that we really want today. Awesome. Thank you. And so do you have any additional question follow up questions or questions. No just hoping that you all will be thinking about that as as one of the aspects of this implementation and accessibility of information to the public. Absolutely thank you. And Mr. Hartwell again. Thank you. I wanted to pick up again on the on the questions of training. This is a field that I. I've had a lot of experience with it. And generally what we find is the best training, especially under where you're trying to learn as you go, is to actually systemically use the feedback that Gabriel team you spoke of when you have incidents using the actual data and the tools that people are getting on the ground on a very regular basis to get feedback and do in this case probably joint review and learning from that. But that takes some resources and time. It doesn't just happen. Usually scheduling something. And that means to think about the downtime where there's not a lot of demand and seeing whether or not times can be set aside to do a regular feedback on what is happening collectively, so that, so that the time can be, you know, really reflected on in an analyzed and used, but that that's going to take a bit of a plan and facilitation. So I wonder if that's something that you're already already working on or it's part of the assessment but it's more than the assessment it's actually how to actually use the learning as you go to build a better support system. That's it. I can kind of briefly answer that we know within our implementation meetings we have certainly had those discussions in terms of how the Crest program is going to function in terms of records keeping and being able to be transparent to be able to provide that data. So that has certainly been within our conversations over and over again to be honest with you, because we do want to be transparent. In the police department, annually we have, we analyze a lot of our data and we have constant evaluations to see where we can do better and where our mistakes are. And that's the same goal that we're going to have with the Crest program as well. Oh, thank you. And Mr. Hartwell, do you have a follow up or additional question. No, that's fine. I just, I'm glad to hear your, it's very central to your, to your plan. Well, I mean, yes, and part of it is too is that we have to have a really good matrix because the goal of this is to keep this program running and for it to grow. And so we have to be able to show that there's that need. So our data collection is very important. And I'm going to allow Ms. Pat back in. Okay. I got a couple of text messages from folks, they are wondering if this forum is being recorded so that they can view it. And they're wondering when can they be able to say it because due to time conflict, they were not able to join tonight. And the next one thing is, I'm wondering how many people tuned in tonight for the forum. Yep. Okay, so yes, this is being recorded. And folks can reach out to me again at moist and Jay at Amherst MA dot gov to receive a copy of the recording I'm trying to think if there's a what we can actually have it put on our web. It's not just on the page, but also the PowerPoint can be available to if people would like that for their own records as well or just to have for information. And I think the highest count that I saw in the attendees was 23, which I think from our first community forum is maybe two or three times the amount of individuals that we had so we're moving forward. Thank you. And so I'm going to go ahead and put another call out to see if any other community members have any comments questions or concerns. And again, you can always reach out to me with those if you don't think of them right now or if you don't want to speak, and I will bring them to the group. And again, the, I will have them place this on the YouTube channel you can also reach out to me for a copy of the recording. I'll have it, you know, access for tomorrow, and you can also the PowerPoint is also available. Miss Alicia. I just also wanted to add that we'll be having another forum as well. So if that works for their schedule will also be here on Saturday. Thank you. Yes. I'm coming up to the closing time and I don't see anyone else's hand raised so I would like to bring it back to the implementation team to ask if any members have anything that they would like to add or respond to. We're just a general thank you for the community to the community. I just want to say I want to say thank you to everybody. The questions that were raised are really valuable. You know, as the chief mentioned this is a living document, which means everything's a work in progress. But that it was given from everyone is is truly valuable. And we really appreciate it. So I want to say thank you. Thank you. And Mr Vernon Jones. I think captain said things that exactly what I wanted to say. And we welcome suggestions and comments and recommendations for things first to think about we welcome on an ongoing basis. Yeah, Miss Alicia. I basically just want to echo everything that's been said. Thank everyone for taking the time to come out tonight and let you all know that your feedback is really invaluable and it's going to move us forward. And I will hope that you will continue to engage with the implementation team so that we can really meet the needs of our community to the best of our ability so please feel free to reach out, even if it's not during a forum. Anyone else. Yeah, I think folks folks need to remember that this is this is brand new. We do do something here that has not been done before. So there's going to be fits and starts and good good days and bad bad bad days. In the end you kind of focus on what we're trying trying to do I what I like like to say is where at the end of the story first. And then you and then you can focus focus on the good that we're trying trying trying to do. We're not going to be able to. What what if every single situation as you know Scott or Gabe Gabe will tell you every, every day is different in this world is public safety. So, you got to accept that, you know, we're going to run into things that we've never thought, thought, thought, thought that's not a bad bad thing that's just just the way that's just just the way it is. But it's, and it gave said this is going to be a work in progress it's going to be a living thing. It's going to take take a while to get to the point where we're saying, Yeah, I think we've got this. But it's good, it's, you know, it's, it's, it's a, you know, it's a marathon marathon it's not a sprint but where where we end up is going to be a good, good places because there's a lot of folks here that want want this work and work well together. So in the, in the end, as I said, we're going to end up in a really good good place. Thank you. Anyone else. I just want to thank everyone for coming up tonight I took a lot of notes and I'm really excited to continue to have these conversations with the implementation team and I hope you all continue to join us as we develop press for the community. And so I'm going to reach out to the community again to see if there's one more for one more call to see if anyone has any questions or comments. Okay. Thank you. And back in, Ian. Sorry, this just has to do with funding that you had mentioned that it is hope it will be linked to the hopeful growth and expansion and continued use of crests art. Is it totally contingent on that or are there other ways to crest to get better funded. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Council member Alicia Walker. Would you like to answer that one? Thank you, Jennifer. So I also don't actually have an answer to this question. I'm hoping that that is not the only way. But this is also a learning process for myself as well. And I'm hoping that the community can continue to advocate that this is something that they want and that they need. And that if we can really get the town, the rest of the council and it's, it's a lot of planning that goes behind it, but I think that just continuing to express the need from the community to the council and to other, the finance committee and to the TSO committee and all of those. So I'm hoping that we can all make this happen together. Right. And I, and I don't know. It's, it's kind of interesting because I think that usually programs are measured on their first year and I, and I just feel like the way that we've jumped off, it wouldn't, it wouldn't be to our advantage to have it that way. So I think that the measurement length of time will be extended out. And hopefully we can have a more accurate understanding of what's needed. And so I'm going to go ahead and get ready to close and I think all of the community members who came and those who came and spoke, please help spread the word that we're having another community forum on Saturday, and I'll be back in about 20 seconds from 12pm to 130. And we will keep everyone in the know of when our next and upcoming form will be hopefully we will be introducing a director soon. So please look forward to that. And I thank everyone. Good night.