The Colorado Springs Police Department has announced some changes aimed at more efficiently connecting individuals who are victims of a crime or are having a mental health crisis with resources.
In part, CSPD has partnered with the 998 Colorado Mental Health Hotline. Dispatchers with 911 can transfer callers experiencing a non-emergent mental health crisis to the 998 line, where a mental health professional can take over the call.
Caitlin Ford, spokeswoman for CSPD, said this can be an alternative to sending a police officer.
“Maybe you just don't want to interact with the police department, which is totally fine,” Ford said.
Internet Crime Reporting
CSPD is also expanding its internet crime reporting program. Victims of crimes that are not emergencies can report the crime online.
Ford said the program is aimed at speeding up response times for those crimes.
“With online reporting, it allows them to be able to report that to the police department within minutes,” Ford said.
Instead of waiting for an officer to come to someone's work or residence to fill out a report, which Ford said could take days or weeks to coordinate, victims can fill out their own report and get a case number within 24-72 hours.
“It just routes you to that appropriate resource faster instead of having that patrol officer be the middleman,” Ford said.
For certain crimes, she said, getting a police report filed and a case number earlier can also get the ball moving for things like insurance claims.
Crimes that are eligible for the online form are break-ins of places that are not a home or business, scams, or thefts. Violent crimes or crimes that otherwise include assault are not eligible.
Ford said the online forms are also more efficient for the police force.
“Those officers are then free to respond to those higher priority calls where we do potentially have an active threat or somebody is actively in danger, so that we can get officers out to it much faster,” Ford said.
At-risk populations, like minors or seniors over the age of 70, are also not eligible to fill out the online form.
“We want to have an officer come out there and make sure that they have everything they need because they're considered an at-risk individual,” Ford said. “We want to make sure that we have eyes on that person and that there's nothing else further going on.”
CSPD said they follow up on all reports, accepted or rejected, with an email.
