What's next for the police response alternative STAR as it turns 5
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Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
Five years after launching, the Support Team Assisted Response Program — otherwise known as the STAR program — sits at a crossroads.
The big picture: The program dispatches a paramedic with a behavioral health clinician to low-risk calls, most often for people dealing with mental health distress or substance use issues.
- Program manager and supervisor Marion Rorke tells us the program serves as an alternative to sending Denver police, who now sometimes call STAR themselves when they realize it's better equipped to handle certain calls.
State of play: STAR has turned into a national model, but in order to one day become a 24/7 service, it needs more funding — which seems unlikely given Denver's current budget woes.
What they're saying: "Every single call that the STAR van responds to — in lieu of law enforcement — could potentially be a life saved," local police reform activist Alex Landau told Denver City Council last week as it recognized the program's fifth anniversary.
By the numbers: The program responded to 25,144 incidents between June 1, 2020, and June 3, 2025, per data provided by the city's department of public health, which runs STAR.
- When it launched, STAR had a single van with two people staffing it per shift.
- It now boasts eight vehicles, plus a rotating staff of 16 Denver Health paramedics and 16 clinicians from WellPower, a mental health care provider, who still work in teams of two.
How it works: STAR runs from 6am-10pm daily, with Denver 911 responsible for dispatching its team instead of police or ambulances.
- STAR can connect people with additional services, even transporting them to places like behavioral health centers or referring them to other local health care services.
- Nearly 60,000 calls were STAR-eligible over the past five years.
The intrigue: Rorke tells us she's working to codify a community advisory committee that provides direct feedback and recommendations to STAR's operation, something local advocates say is crucial to its success.
- That could mean making this community board a charter requirement, giving the panel more authority.
Between the lines: STAR's current budget is $7.2 million, including $5.3 million directly from the city, and the rest coming from Caring for Denver grant money.
What's next: The Urban Institute is conducting a study on STAR to determine how it expands its operations, which Rorke tells us should be completed this fall.