ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. — The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office has launched a new monthly initiative to answer questions, provide transparency and potentially inform future policies.
This spring, the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office launched “Talk with Tyler,” a Facebook live stream for community members to ask questions to Sheriff Tyler Brown.
Thus far, Brown has hosted two live sessions. The most recent was about mental health, and Brown was joined by Julie Jacobs, the program manager for Arapahoe County’s Behavioral Health Response Program.
“Over the 3,000 plus calls last year — and it’s an approximate number, because it’s hard to say if somebody was going to commit a criminal episode — we’ve probably diverted about a third of those calls from the criminal justice system with our co-responder program,” Brown said.
Brown said these sorts of success are ones he hopes to share with the community during the “Talk with Tyler” program.
Brown emphasized that while the program isn’t a unique format, he appreciates having a new, direct line of communication with community members.
Brown said during the “Talk with Tyler” program, he’s prepared to answer the “tough questions” from citizens.
“I think that the voice of the community should be involved in how their law enforcement agency looks and how they provide that service,” he said.
The sheriff said feedback from the community could inform future policies and practices.
“Through our accreditation process, we’re always looking to see what is the best practice for the profession,” he said.
Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office engages community, gains feedback through new program
The next “Talk with Tyler” will be about the dangers of fentanyl.
“I called coroner Dr. Kelly Leer to come up, hopefully at the beginning of August, and talk about the opioid crisis and how that’s impacting our community, and what fentanyl looks like and the issues that we’re dealing with,” he said.
The efforts from the ACSO come as the nation continues to confront calls for police accountability following the murder of George Floyd.
A little more than a month ago, President Joe Biden signed an executive order on police accountability. While the order only applies to federal law enforcement officers, The White House has said it incentivizes state and local agencies to implement new standards if they want to receive federal grant money.
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