By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT–Police never know exactly what they will find when they respond to a 911 call.

It’s not always an ambulance call, a possible theft, or a car accident. Sometimes it’s a home where hoarding is such a problem that it has become dangerous for the occupant, or an attempted suicide, or an elderly or disabled person who hasn’t been able to get to the store for groceries, or a victim of domestic abuse. And these calls come in every week.

To help the town’s police officers with matters that do not entail legal infractions, the police department is starting a new program called the Community Care Unit, linking the police department with Westport’s Human Services Department.

The 16-member Human Services Department helps Westport residents find the aid they need to cope with a range of challenges, including veteran services, youth services, food insecurity, housing insecurity, elderly care and mental health.

“We get referrals [from the police] about three to seven times a week,” said Elaine Daignault, the director of Human Services, at the Jan. 8 meeting of TEAM Westport.

Calls from residents with issues that may be the result of mental health problems, “are one of the top calls for our services,” said Lt. Anthony Prezioso, an administrative lieutenant at the Police Department. “Suicide threats and attempts … non-compliance with medications … bizarre behavior … mental health is one of the many things we respond to,” he said.  

Lt. Sereniti Dobson will lead the new program with Liaison Officer Ruta Pratt. “We will be working more directly with Human Services,” Dobson said. The program will include a registry of those who may need help so that potential needs – oxygen needed during a power outage, for example – can be met more quickly, she said. 

“We will provide as many services as possible that the client will accept,” Dobson said of the new police unit. That could include hospitalization or referrals to outside organizations through the Human Services Department.

Some neighboring towns have embedded social workers on the police force, but that may not be needed in Westport with the new Community Care program linking the town’s Human Services Department with the police, she said. “Westport is unique. We have such a great relationship with Human Services.” 

Although the Community Care unit hasn’t been formally launched yet, Dobson and Pratt are already working with residents who are found to need help when police officers answer calls. Their purview is “anything that involves the welfare,” of the residents the police are working with, whether it’s with juveniles, or the elderly, Dobson said. “We’re hoping the community will take advantage.”

Dobson said the unit has been active since the fall and will be officially announced very soon.

Another benefit of the program, she said, is that it will reduce the number of repeat calls for police service from particular residents as their needs are addressed more successfully. 

In an era where trust in police has slipped, a unit like Community Care is even more necessary on calls that are not law related, she added.

“When we respond to calls, it’s not about the use of force.”

Daignault said that the new program just emphasizes the excellent working relationship that can occur between social services and law enforcement.

“There are a lot of officers out there who are really concerned about the health and well being of residents,” she said.

Gretchen Webster

^{_{Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, has reported for the daily Greenwich Time and Norwalk Hour, the weekly Westport News, Fairfield Citizen and Weston Forum. She was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman for ten years. She has won numerous journalism awards over the years, and taught journalism at New York University and Southern Connecticut State University.}}