AMHERST — Over the last nine months of 2024, Amherst’s unarmed community responders handled 696 calls for service, either from people making direct appeals for help by walking into or calling the office, or having calls relayed from the town’s emergency dispatch center.

But while the workload has continued to increase for the Community Responders for Equity, Safety and Service, created in 2022 and now averaging more than 2.5 calls per day, the bulk of the work being done by the teams are to assist neighbors and do outreach, with 164 of each type of call from April through December 2024.

Members of the Community Safety and Social Justice Committee, receiving the year-end report from CRESS Director Camille Theriaque at a meeting on Feb. 12, appeared lukewarm toward the data.

“While CRESS is doing all these wonderful things, it amounts to social services,” said committee member Everald Henry, rather than being the alternative to police it was envisioned as and fulfilling the mandate it was given.

“When is CRESS going to be a in position where we can say to the community: Police doesn’t respond to everything?” Henry said.

Theriaque said the committee should be optimistic and that the growing number of calls is a good thing.

“There’s a lack of understanding of what it is that we do and can do versus what is the perception, that we can just go to all of these types of calls,” Theriaque said.

“I feel that in order for the Amherst community to know who we are, we need to be out in the community doing the work,” Theriaque said.

There needs to be frank conversations about CRESS, she said, which when fully staffed has eight responders forming four multiracial teams.

“I think that’s happening now — I think we’re going to more of the calls people would have called APD for,” Theriaque said.

As an example, she pointed to a November 2024 incident where CRESS was asked by a son-in-law to look for his mother-in-law. Both CRESS responders and a Clinical & Support Options responder found the woman, scared and huddled in the corner of her home, learning she had been scared by a neighbor. In resolving this, Theriaque said emotional support was provided and she was connected to resources.

In August 2024, CRESS went to the food distribution at the Bangs Community Center for a racial incident. The responders assisted a male customer with how to be appropriate in a public space, and while an Amherst police officer was on scene, she deferred to CRESS.

CRESS teams are also doing community outreach, including soliciting neighbor feedback surveys to figure out what is needed, creating youth programming with educational and social justice themes, and editing a newsletter that will keep the community up to date.

Emergency calls lacking

But the lack of emergency dispatch calls to CRESS, which were expected to be similar to calls for police, fire and ambulances, remains a sore point.

CSSJC Committee member Debora Ferreira said she still needs more data and wanted to know how many of the calls, precisely, had originated with dispatch. Theriaque said this is not yet possible.

“We are not privy to the APD logs in that way,” Theriaque said.

“Most of the calls we get are from referrals or people who call us directly, because they don’t want to call police,” Theriaque said.

Theriaque said the so-called standard operating procedures will be done by the end of the quarter. “The criteria for the calls — those are things still being worked out, because of the dispatchers,” Theriaque said.

Two former members of the Community Safety Working Group — which brought forward the recommendation to create CRESS — also spoke.

“Basically any call that doesn’t involve a significant crime, weapons and/or violence, is probably one that should be going to CRESS, as long as they are on duty during those hours,” said Russ Vernon-Jones.

He called it a failure of Town Hall, emergency dispatch and police “if they’re not getting calls to CRESS.”