Study for unarmed responder program cost Ann Arbor $100k

Ann Arbor officials paid more than $100,000 for a 49-page study considering the city’s new program for unarmed responders.

The Ann Arbor City Council unanimously approved a plan on July 20 for an unarmed response team, but Tree City officials have been considering such a program for five years.

In 2021, the council adopted a resolution to develop an unarmed public safety response program, saying it would ease the burden on police and firefighters.

The city has spent $104,918 in federal stimulus funds on the program, according to a document that Michigan Capitol Confidential obtained through a records request. That money paid for a report prepared by Lansing-based Public Sector Consultants.

Ann Arbor Unarmed Response Team Final Report2023 by mcclallen

The city’s Supportive Resources and Outreach Teams program will send four unarmed clinicians to respond to non-emergency calls. The Public Sector Consultants report suggested the program could be funded through existing city funds.

The goal of the pilot program is to “offer an alternative to police response and provide care that is empathetic, compassionate, trauma-informed, and responsive to the community’s needs,” the report concluded.

“We would expect to see individuals being connected to appropriate behavioral health, substance use, housing, and social service resources, rather than unnecessarily entering the criminal justice or emergency medical systems,” Jonathan Laye, director of Ann Arbor’s Supportive Connections Program, told the City Council via Zoom on July 20.

The program structure follows that of a similar effort in Durham, North Carolina, Laye said.

“The goal is not to preserve a particular model at all costs, but to build the most effective, accountable, and evidence-informed crisis response system possible for the city of Ann Arbor’s community,” said Laye.

The program will respond to people having breakdowns and other problems that aren’t crime, Ward 1 Councilmember Cynthia Harrison said.

“It is not armed,” Harrison said of the team. “It is not (the Ann Arbor Police Department). It is a fully civilian, unarmed response staffed by licensed social workers trained in crisis intervention and trauma-informed care. Their job is connection, stabilization, and case management, not law enforcement.”

Ann Arbor has one of the highest costs of living in Michigan and a growing homeless population.

Police are asked to do too much, and not every 911 call requires an armed response, Ann Arbor Mayor Chris Taylor said in front of the city council during that meeting.

“We also have to meet people where they are, and there are many times when people want help, need help, but they don’t want to have an officer show up,” Taylor said. “Our police have all too often been the point of last government contact, the government engagement of last resort.”