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Rochester’s latest attempt at improving its emergency response service was announced Wednesday.
In September, the first phase of the ACTION Team, a community responder team, will formally launch.
“Our creation of Rochester’s ACTION Team is in direct response to requests from our community,” said Mayor Malik Evans. “This innovative program is a perfect complement to the other initiatives my administration has taken over the past few years to increase public safety resources in our community.”
ACTION Team members will consist of 10 full-time employees who in phase one will respond to low-risk 911 calls screened by the Emergency Communications Center from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Similar to the city’s Person In Crisis teams, they would provide aid to non-violent calls for help. However, the ACTION Team would respond only to non-urgent calls such as trespassing and annoyance incidents to begin, with the expectation of expanding service in the future.
This process comes from recommendations in a report from the Law Enforcement Action Partnership, first contracted by Evans in 2023 to improve emergency response services. LEAP has worked with other cities on improving this same measure including Dayton, Albuquerque, Baltimore, and Durham, N.C.
Based on its analysis of over 82,000 911 calls received in 2022 in Rochester, LEAP found the largest segment (33 percent) fell into the “conflict resolution” category. Among those calls, ones made to report incidents of annoyance, trespass incidents, or to “check the welfare” of an individual, were among the most common and most suited for a community responder team.
For example, one 2022 call was a case where someone heard their elderly neighbor’s dog continually barking. Since the caller mentioned no immediate danger, the organization determined it would be appropriate for community responders to deal with.
Unlike PIC, the ACTION Team will not respond in tandem with the Rochester Police Department. Instead, the team will carry radios for back-up requests.
LEAP noted existing research that supports its recommended process as safe for the community responders. A 2022 Vera Institute of Justice analysis of 15.6 million 911 calls from nine cities found that 62 percent of calls were both nonviolent and noncriminal. The CAHOOTS responder team in Eugene, Ore., managed over 15,000 calls in 2019 with only 2.2 percent requiring police followup and 0.2 percent requiring emergency police backup.
“Rochester’s own PIC team has safely handled thousands of 911 calls,” the report states. “To date, our review of dozens of programs nationwide found no cases of injury to community responders caused by people on the scene.
“Community responders receive more training in threat assessment, on-scene safety, de-escalation, behavioral health, and conflict resolution than other unarmed public employees and workers,” it adds.
The report also noted that carrying radios gave community responders a greater sense of security when responding to 911 calls, even if they were generally not needed.
Contrary to the city’s announcement, LEAP actually recommended that a community response team deal with calls related to checking the welfare, customer trouble, and trespass incidents in phase one. In phase two, it would move on to annoyance incidents and neighbor trouble, with phase three including all eligible call types.
Based on PIC staffing numbers, the report estimated Rochester could staff four teams per day with 12 full-time and two part-time responders. For phase one, which covers preparation and operation, LEAP estimated a total cost of $855,067 for the 2024-25 financial year.
LEAP’s report also notes that the public image of community responders is crucial to their eventual success. In particular, it recommended giving them uniforms clearly separate from the RPD or other law enforcement agencies.
“We recommend outfitting responders in uniforms that distinguish them from police officers, such as polos or T-shirts with the program insignia and khaki pants,” the report states. “Additionally, we suggest that their uniforms clearly identify them as responders, including the words ‘community responder’ on their shirts, jackets, and vehicles. Both Dayton’s MRU and Eugene’s CAHOOTS (other community response teams) have made similar design choices.”
The mayor’s announcement did not have any details about uniform choices for the ACTION Team.
Evans says that to ensure a successful launch in September, the city will now work to align the ACTION Team with the police officers’ Locust Club union contract and “establish protocols, hire ACTION Team members, train new hires and 911 operators, and foster strong relationships for team members across City departments.”
The ACTION Team will fall under the Department of Recreation and Human Services.
Jacob Schermerhorn is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and data journalist.
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It would be appropriate to credit Mayor Evans’ challenger, Mary Lupien with working on this effort for the last three years. Search “forum on community based first response mary lupien” on Google.