Opinion: A Call for a Public Investigation of the Turmoil at CRESS and a Commitment to Preserve Its Original Mission

by the former members of Community Safety Working Group.

Tashina Bowman, Darius Cage, Debora Ferreira, Russ Vernon-Jones, Brianna Owen (Co-Chair), Pat Ononibaku, Ellisha Walker (Co-Chair)

In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, cities and towns throughout the country recognized that public safety is not a one size fits all, and that alternative programs such as the Cahoots Program in Oregon, have been utilized to rethink public safety through a lens of anti-racism and trauma-informed care. Responder programs like Cahoots were recognized for their approach to non-violent calls, and they shed light on the fact that many 911 calls do not require the presence of a gun and would be better off without one.

In 2020 the Community Safety Working Group (CSWG) was charged by the Amherst Town Council and Town Manager to: 

1. make recommendations on alternative ways of providing public safety services to the community 
2. make recommendations on reforms to the current organizational and oversight structures of the Amherst Police Department.

The CSWG, the composition of which included members skilled in law, education, nonprofit practice, business, health care, and human services, put together cutting edge recommendations (see also here) to challenge the way Amherst thinks about public safety. The recommendations focused  on ensuring all in Amherst felt safe by looking at public safety through a holistic lens. 

The Town of Amherst went on to be the first town in the state of Massachusetts to implement an alternative to policing, the mission of which is rooted in anti-racism and trauma-informed care, thanks to the CSWG’s community engagement, research, and recommendations. This department, the Community Responders for Equity, Safety and Service (CRESS), was the first department of its kind in Amherst to be staffed by predominantly Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) who have deep rooted ties to the Town of Amherst. Although Amherst Town Councilors moved forward to implement this department, they ignored specific recommendations CSWG members included in their report. 

Several CSWG members had experience in human services and recognized the challenges this new department would have. They  recognized that this department offered the town an opportunity to serve the community in a way it never had before. With that, members recommended this department be fully staffed to operate 24/7, that it provide comparable salaries to the police department to attract and retain employees, and that there be a leadership team to support the department’s work and step up as needed. Specific recommendations can be viewed on page 21 of our Report A on the Amherst Town website. 

The funding for CRESS came primarily from a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH), which was $450,000 to be exact. This grant requires that CRESS respond to 911 calls and operate as a public safety department. The Town Council also approved some funds to start this department. The implementation team, whose composition included three former CSWG members, two members of the Police Department, an HR staff member, and Fire Department staff implemented this department behind closed doors with the budget allotted. In the summer of 2022, CRESS became a department composed of a Director, an implementation manager to oversee the DPH grant and eight responders. 

Since the summer of 2022 it is unclear how many, if any, 911 calls CRESS has responded to, what is the identity of the demographic assisted by CRESS, and what are the services being requested and given by CRESS. The CSWG recommended a successor committee now known as the Community Safety and Social Justice Committee (CSSJC) to oversee CRESS’s progress and to ensure CSWG’s recommendations came to fruition. Part of the charge of the CSSJC is to “provide advice and support to all town government entities including the Town Council, Town Manager, and town committees to fully realize the resolution, ‘Affirming the Town of Amherst’s Commitment to End Structural Racism and Achieve Racial Equity for Black residents‘ adopted by the Town Council, December 2020.” Despite this charge, the town has yet to utilize CSSJC in this manner. At CSSJC’s monthly meetings, updates are given by CRESS and by the Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Department,  however, there has been no collaboration to work together on events, forums, the development of CRESS, or the other recommendations made by CSWG. 

In early August 2023, close to a year after CRESS first started, the Director, Earl Miller, was placed on paid administrative leave and a confidential investigation into his actions as director was begun. Pending the outcome of this investigation, the department is now being overseen by members of the Amherst Police Department, Fire Department, CRESS’s Grant Manager, and the DEI Director. Since the CRESS Director’s leave began, over half of the staff have resigned. 

As former members of the CSWG, we share deep concern for the future of the department. As stated in Russ Vernon-Jones public comment at the October 2 Town Council meeting, 

“Our research confirmed what many of us had known for a long time–that there is a high level of mistrust of the police among black and brown members of our Amherst community. A great many law-abiding BIPOC members of our community feel less safe, or in danger, when the police are around. So much so that they often do not call 911 even when they need help because they do not want to risk having to deal with the police.”

We urge the public  to investigate why the CRESS responders are still not receiving 911 calls even though the policies, protocols, technology, and training have been in place since January. We urge the community to investigate the advertised role at the Amherst Police Department for a CSO (Clinical & Support Options) Co-Responder and where such funding came from. We urge that this current leadership team at CRESS be dismantled and one of the responders lead CRESS in the interim. Lastly, we ask that the mission of CRESS, to be an alternative to policing centered on anti-racism and trauma-informed care, not be lost during this leadership vacuum. The CSWG has sent town councilors informed recommendations to keep its mission intact during this transition, but we have yet to hear back. 

To maintain the integrity of CRESS’s mission and the overall department, the CSWG recommends the following:

1. CRESS should be independent of the Police Department and its leadership
2. Dispatch should start sending appropriate calls to CRESS 
3. A interim dIrectorshould be hired promptly in this transition period

Tashina Bowman, Darius Cage, Debora Ferreira, Russ Vernon-Jones, Brianna Owen (Co-Chair), Pat Ononibaku, Ellisha Walker (Co-Chair), were members of Amherst’s Community Safety Working Group