[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 115 (Wednesday, July 13, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3272-S3273]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BENNET:
  S. 4513. A bill to amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets 
Act of 1968 to provide funding or innovations in community policing, 
mental health care, and community safety, and for other purposes; to 
the Committee on the Judiciary.
  Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, a few years ago, a police officer in 
Pueblo, CO, was kind enough to let me join him in a squad car for a few 
hours to get a sense of what his daily beat was like. It was in the 
middle of the night. It didn't take very long to appreciate that our 
country asks law enforcement to do a lot more than simply enforce the 
law.
  Washington has underinvested in the American people year after year 
after year in areas like housing, education, and mental health. It has 
left law enforcement to pick up the pieces. It has put them in a 
position wherein they are not only having to serve as law enforcement 
officers but also as social workers, as mental health professionals, 
and as responders for issues like homelessness or drug addiction, even 
though nobody has trained them for it necessarily.
  That result has been really tough for officers on the ground in 
Colorado and across the country. It strains their resources, adds to 
the workload, and accelerates burnout. It has also been hard for 
communities. It diverts law enforcement from violent crime, and it 
means we are forcing officers to address mental health issues and 
problems instead of dealing with the underlying issues that produce 
many 9-1-1 calls in the first place.
  I am sad to say that all of these underlying issues that everybody is 
familiar with have gotten worse during the pandemic. It is one reason 
there has been a spike in crime that started in 2020, before the 
current administration, and it has continued ever since. In 2020, 
murders rose nearly 30 percent. Aggravated assault was up 12 percent. 
Motor vehicle theft was up 12 percent. Again, this was in 2020, before 
the current administration, but, sadly, many of these trends have 
continued. In a survey of small businesses, 54 percent of American 
small businesses reported an increase in shoplifting last year.
  To deal with this rise in crime, we need to increase funding for the 
COPS Program, which I strongly support, so we can hire more officers 
and strengthen community police. I think we should pass a bill that I 
am introducing today, called the SMART Community Policing Act. The bill 
is based on 28 highly successful programs across Colorado, in places 
like Denver and Grand Junction.
  As I mentioned, you know, a lot of 9-1-1 calls involve lower risk 
situations that don't always require a police officer, but some 
combination of an EMT, a mental health specialist, or a social worker 
can get the job done, allowing law enforcement to focus on violent 
crime, but in most of the country, law enforcement has to answer every 
one of those 9-1-1 calls.
  The SMART Community Policing Act creates resources for law 
enforcement to partner with local organizations and service providers 
so they send the right responder depending on what the problem actually 
is. That lets law enforcement focus on violent crime and lets other 
responders with the right training deal with lower risk situations, 
like when someone is experiencing a mental health crisis or a severe 
drug withdrawal. These trained professionals can deescalate the 
situation. They can connect people with the right resources and do the 
comprehensive followup to keep them from requiring emergency services 
again and again and again.
  Grand Junction's Co-Responder Unit has answered over 3,200 calls 
since the program began in 2018. Denver's STAR Program has responded to 
almost 4,600 calls since 2020.
  I had a chance to hear about the STAR Program from Denver's police 
chief, Paul Pazen, 2 years ago. He told me about a mom who had called 
9-1-1 because she was having a lot of trouble with her child. You don't 
need a police

[[Page S3273]]

officer for that, so they sent responders from STAR, who deescalated 
the situation and saved law enforcement precious time.
  If you add it all up, those are thousands of hours that officers in 
Denver and Grand Junction and across Colorado could spend focusing on 
violent crime instead of on issues that other people might have greater 
expertise to deal with, people with the right training in nonviolent 
situations. It allows us to reduce the strain on the system.
  None of this is speculation. When Stanford University studied 
Denver's program, they found that in neighborhoods patrolled by STAR, 
reports of less serious crimes dropped by more than a third and that 
the program saved a lot of money, a ton of money. It cost about $150 
when STAR responded to an offense compared to nearly $650 when the 
Denver PD responded on their own.
  I can appreciate what these savings would mean for a local police 
department. My colleagues may remember that before I was in the Senate, 
one of my jobs was serving as chief of staff to John Hickenlooper, who 
was then the mayor of Denver. I don't know what became of him, but he 
was a very good mayor for the city and county of Denver. In that job, I 
heard all the time from community leaders as to how they wished there 
were resources beyond law enforcement for situations that were better 
suited for a social worker or a mental health expert.
  I would have loved to have had the STAR Program when I was working 
for the city and county of Denver, and I would have loved it when I was 
the superintendent of the Denver Public Schools, where a lot of my job 
was working with the Denver Police Department to keep our schools safe 
and to reduce the ticketing of kids so they weren't cycling through the 
criminal justice system prematurely.
  All of this experience led me to write this bill, and I view this as 
one more area wherein Colorado offers a model for the country to take 
on the rise in crime in a smart and thoughtful way.
  Americans have a reasonable expectation--a reasonable expectation--
that Washington cares as much about their safety as they do, and they 
expect the people they send to Washington to actually come up with 
useful solutions. I think this bill meets that test. It responds to the 
needs of law enforcement and to the needs of communities. I don't know 
how anybody here could object to it.
  If you want to reduce violent crime, you should support this bill. If 
you want trained experts responding to nonviolent 9-1-1 calls instead 
of police officers, you should support this bill. If you want to save 
taxpayers money, you should support this bill. So I hope my colleagues 
on both sides of the aisle will take a look at this proposal, and I 
gladly welcome their support.
                                 ______