CRESS Director Earl Miller Receives Enthusiastic Welcome At Cuppa Joe

Over 35 people attended  Cuppa Joe on Friday April 15 at the Bangs Center, to meet new CRESS (Community Responders for Equity, Safety, and Service) Director Earl Miller.   The event marked the return of Cuppa Joe to meeting in person. The Attendees included town councilors, town staff, seniors, high school students, the sheriff, and many interested residents. Addressing the audience, Miller announced that, “This is my dream job.” Before accepting the position last month, he had viewed all of the recordings of the Community Safety Working Group, and realized all the hard work and difficult conversations that went into creating the program. He said, “I want it to not only to be the first (alternative to the police) program in the area, but the best one.”

Miller said he has been working with town departments and visiting the library, schools, and senior center to get to know the town and to introduce himself and what he hopes the CRESS program can offer. He said he would like CRESS responders to be present at the library at closing time to offer assistance to those who spend most of their days in the library because they have no other place to go. He said it is important to treat those with mental health problems with love and compassion, that no one being disruptive “is coming from a good place.”

The CRESS program will begin the interviewing for a program director next week and then will hire the eight responders in May so that the program can begin by mid-June. The CRESS program will use the same dispatchers as the police department, so the dispatchers will be trained to direct calls to either the police or the CRESS responders, although Miller pointed out that even in crime situations, there is a victim who may benefit from CRESS services. The program will operate seven days a week during the busiest times for calls. He hopes to expand to 24/7 services.

Although he has only been on the job for a month, Miller said he has been warmly received by every department he has met with. He said he is “never too busy to hear complaints (or compliments)” and encouraged people to “invite me out to something. I like coffee, food, dogs, babies, anything.” He noted that he is “taking ownership” of the CRESS program and added, “If it does not succeed, it’s on me.”

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