AMHERST — Two Community Responders for Equity, Safety and Service positions to remain vacant for the next year and the continued lack of directing emergency dispatch calls to these responders is alarming advocates for the unarmed police alternative.

With the Town Council presented a budget from Town Manager Paul Bockelman that freezes funding for two of the eight full-time responders, and eliminating a grant-funded program implementation manager, members of the Community Safety and Social Justice Committee are criticizing the spending plan, especially at a time when fear is gripping already marginalized communities in town due to ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions.

“CRESS needs to be fully funded because CRESS is the safe haven for people to go to and ask questions and be able to get the resources and help they need,” Debora Ferreira, who co-chairs the committee, said at its June 11 meeting.

Calling the staff reductions “unfathomable,” Ferreira also said it is “clear sabotage” that emergency dispatchers are not being allowed to send calls to CRESS, a decision she contends is about getting rid of the program that was created as a recommendation of the Community Safety Working Group following the murder of George Floyd five years ago.

“That is what I believe the town is trying to do and town government is trying to do with all these shenanigans,” Ferreira said. “Resistance for resistance sake.”

She was not alone in expressing frustration. Committee member Lissette Paredes said CRESS has not grown in the way she anticipated when she joined the committee two years ago, and though she understands the liabilities for not directing calls to CRESS, she would prefer a police officer doesn’t show up first if she makes a noise complaint.

“They’re not even giving responders a chance to assist on certain calls because of the risk factor,” Paredes said.

Paredes said she is also concerned that with six responders, instead of eight, they will be spread thin.

Committee member Everald Henry said a conversation about the concerns needs to happen with the full Town Council soon, though this may be too late.

“How can we get more than sufficient time to go in front of the Town Council, to do a presentation to Town Council on behalf of CRESS,” Henry said.

In his nearly 300-page budget book delivered to the Town Council on May 1, Bockelman writes that the frozen positions at CRESS are a function of not having sufficient financial resources.

“This difficult decision reflects broader fiscal constraints, but it does not signal a retreat from our commitment to this pioneering department,” Bockelman wrote. “CRESS remains a vital component of the town’s infrastructure of support for its residents, and the town will continue to nurture its establishment and growth.”

The budget book also indicates that the communications center for the emergency dispatch is expected to continue to intregrate CRESS into the town’s dispatch policies and procedures.

CRESS Director Camille Theriaque said even with the challenges, there has been steady growth in calls CRESS is handling, which matches what other communities across the country are experiencing with similar programs. She said people who call are getting services such as deescalation and mediation, listening and empathy and a determination of what their needs are.

While she agreed it’s not working entirely as envisioned, with the dispatch portion the most troubling, Theriaque said more calls are coming from the public, businesses and even town departments.

“It may not be working at the optimal level, but it’s still working,” Theriaque said.

The department also has been busy with initiatives such as CRESS Connections, where responders visit with elementary school children after school and the Morning Movement and Mentoring program, where teenagers have an opportunity to begin their day with physical exercise and building relationships with older peers. The department has also been effective at diversion and helping some individuals with housing struggles, she said.

Theriaque said a community needs assessment also will be done, in conjunction with the Tury Research Institute, during gatherings on June 23 and June 24.

During the budget hearings with the Finance Committee, additional concerns came up over the police use of a co-responder model, where a clinician joins police officers on calls.

Theriaque said under a co-responder model, the police control the scene. A CRESS response is a lot different than with an armed responder, she said.

“Different needs require a different type of call and a different type of action,” Theriaque said.

Ferreira said her concern is that to fold CRESS into the co-response model would be unacceptable for community members, as responders are there to listen, find out what the issue is, see what kind of help is needed and act as a bridge.

“Just because they (the police) have a clinician that goes on some of the calls does not mean there isn’t a need for CRESS,” Ferreira said.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.