CLEAR CREEK COUNTY, Colo. — Clear Creek County is ready to try a new approach to mental health calls.
More than a year after Christian Glass’ death, the county says armed officers are no longer responding to those types of calls. Instead, the newly formed Clear Creek Health Assistance Team pairs a paramedic and a clinician to respond to emergencies involving mental health.
"We’re trying to find better tools for each call," said Clark Church, director of the team. "Traditionally an ambulance, law enforcement, the fire department might go to these calls. But they might not have the resources or the skills to see what they can help a person do."
Church is a paramedic. Lynzee Buseck is a counselor. Together, they make up the new team. No badges, no guns, no handcuffs.
"We’re trying to shift away from punitive interventions and try and get people connected to the resources that they need," said Buseck. "My role in this is to do some brief solution focused interventions with people so that they can get some relief from the crisis that they’re experiencing."
They start each call the same way: by saying hello.
"We can ask the person that is in need what do they think would help and see if that’s something that we can assist with," said Church.
"We just go up and start talking to the person that needs help," said Buseck.
Starting a call for help with a hello is different than how things escalated the night Glass, 22, was killed by police last year in Silver Plume. Officers talked to Glass for 70 minutes while he was in the middle of a mental emergency before they shot and killed him.
"Step out of the car now," an officer can be heard yelling on body camera video as he points a gun at Glass sitting inside his car.
As part of the settlement package given to Glass’ parents, Clear Creek County was required to start some sort of crisis response team by the beginning of 2025. The county says there had been talks of starting a team like this even before the shooting, but it never got off the ground.
Now, more than a year after Glass was killed, a team to respond to calls like that is finally operational.
"Step out of the car now," an officer can be heard yelling on body camera video as he points a gun at Glass sitting inside his car.
As part of the settlement package given to Glass’ parents, Clear Creek County was required to start some sort of crisis response team by the beginning of 2025. The county says there had been talks of starting a team like this even before the shooting, but it never got off the ground.
Now, more than a year after Glass was killed, a team to respond to calls like that is finally operational.
Armed officers won’t respond to calls like Glass’ anymore in Clear Creek County. Church and Buseck will also use a far different approach.
"We can sit with someone for a long time and figure out, what do you need? What do you want that you think will make this situation better?" said Church.
"We’re on scene usually for quite a few hours. We have the time to spend with people. What we’re trying to do is connect with people," added Buseck.
Clear Creek County is big and there’s often a lot of space in between homes. This team of two people right now will have to respond to an area that’s 350 square miles. That means it could take more than an hour to get to a call in far parts of the county. In those cases, a police officer may have to respond if the person in need of help can’t wait for the mental health team to get there.
"A lot of times when people are in crisis situations, they just want to feel heard. A lot of times they’re not getting that for whatever reason," said Buseck.
So far, this new team has responded to 14 calls in the first two weeks.
"Our goal is to make shared decisions with the people that we’re seeing," said Church. "We can be dedicated to hang out for two or three hours and try and find solutions to problems."
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