Oct. 15 -- Amid calls to expand the city of Santa Fe's alternative response unit, recent city data indicates the unit has been handling fewer calls than when it began in 2021 to free police officers to fight crime.

The unit currently consists of 13 paramedics and case managers with training in crisis intervention who can be dispatched instead of police officers to certain emergency calls, including welfare checks, overdoses and mental health crises.

At a meeting Tuesday of the City Council's Public Safety Committee, program manager Nicole Ault provided a chart showing a steady decrease over the last two years in the number of monthly "incident responses" performed by the alternate response unit. In the most recent four months of data, the unit has handled fewer than 100 responses per month compared to more than 250 in October 2022, the data shows.

The monthly average over the two-year period is 114 calls, which is slightly higher than the number of calls the unit addressed in its first two months of operation. Ault noted those represented "114 calls that would have gone to either fire or police."

Ault attributed the decrease in responses to "growing pains" for the program. In an interview, she said a key vacancy in the unit along with some other "staffing issues" have posed challenges. The alternative response unit is now fully staffed, she said.

The unit -- which is organized within the fire department -- was launched in May 2021 with nine employees as a collaborative effort of the fire, police and community services departments. The goal was to provide an appropriate level of response to certain calls to the Regional Emergency Communication Center and to better serve people needing services like medical care, behavioral health care, housing assistance and addiction treatment.

Until then, police cars, fire trucks and ambulances responded to all calls, even those that did not indicate violence.

The city expanded the program the following year, adding an Emergency Medical Services captain and three case managers -- for a total of 13 employees. The larger workforce allowed the unit to expand from four days of operation per week to five while doubling capacity Tuesdays and Thursdays.

In early 2023, amid a cold snap, the ARU implemented the city's "Code Blue protocols," and unit members scoured the city to find unsheltered people and try to persuade them to get out of the cold. Later that year, a city task force focused on health and public safety recommended expanding the alternative response unit again, this time to run around the clock, seven days a week.

The task force's final report notes a survey of Santa Fe residents found broad support for replacing police response with that of the alternative response unit "across several low-level calls," such as calls involving drug addiction or mental health problems.

The ARU teams include a paramedic and case managers trained in crisis intervention and social services, with backup from the Police Department as needed. Ault said case managers and paramedics employed in the unit are "experts" in routing people to the services they need.

"We really have the opportunity to identify vulnerable people in the community," she said, "people who may not otherwise be seen."

Ault said expanding Santa Fe's alternative response unit is "a big goal" for her, but she wants to make it a sustainable city program.

"I think we have some strategic planning to do," Ault said. "I really want to be deliberate about how we built this out."