Photo by Jedekiah Coy, Mesa Media Productions.
Many of the roughly 12,000 911 calls Montezuma County dispatch receives each year are noncriminal in nature. “I came across a number of clients or patients for who it wasn’t really a law enforcement issue and didn’t really have a medical concern that warranted taking them to the ER,” says Albert Brokofsky, a Cortez area EMT. “They were kind of right in the middle.” That’s why, in 2022, Montezuma County launched the Community Intervention Program (CIP), in which EMTs and clinical therapists are dispatched to nonviolent calls—providing resources to people in need and connecting them to behavioral health resources while alleviating pressure on law enforcement. It’s an innovative program for a rural community, but it wouldn’t have been possible if the CIP team couldn’t communicate with dispatch and other emergency responders. The LOR Foundation helped the CIP team purchase four high-quality radios that work in even the most remote areas of Montezuma County, allowing the team to stay connected in emergency situations. Learn more in the video below.
Filmed and edited by Jedekiah Coy, Mesa Media Productions.
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