CASPER, Wyo. — The Casper City Council could look to change how the city spends its safety money after new data showed a small group of people is responsible for most police and jail activity. A plan may include taking money spent on police arrests and redirecting it to permanent housing and treatment programs; one councilor suggested looking at a fire department–run crisis response team used in cities like Billings, Montana.
Councilor Kyle Gamroth shared with his fellow councilors Tuesday the findings from the latest Homelessness Coalition Task Force meeting, which included data from the Casper Police Department. That data show that from January to Oct. 20, just 32 people — half of whom are unhoused — were responsible for 1,238 calls for service. That’s about 39 incidents per month, with more than one call some days. During the same time, 31 people were booked into the Natrona County Detention Center 373 times collectively.
Gamroth said the concentrated usage proves the city is wasting resources on reactive enforcement like constantly arresting and jailing people, instead of addressing the core issues of mental health, addiction and homelessness.
The current effort involves the Natrona County Collective Health Trust working with the Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center to create a five-year report. The report’s job is to detail the true cost of providing services for high-needs people. The report may convince officials to shift money spent on reactive measures like incarceration toward proactive strategies like stable housing and treatment.
The Downtown Development Authority has published an incident log on its website for local merchants to report observations that don’t need a police call. The aim is to get better data on issues caused by both unhoused people and youth doing “nefarious” but not quite criminal things after hours in places like the parking garage, Gamroth said.
Councilor Michael McIntosh strongly supported the change and mentioned studying a crisis response team model used in Billings. That team, run through the fire department, handles mental health and other non-medical emergencies, taking the burden off the police, he said.
Other updates
In other matters, the council heard updates related to downtown safety and city finances.
Councilor Pat Sweeney asked about the expected rate increase for employee health insurance, saying group policies are generally seeing 6%–20% increases. Interim City Manager Zulima Lopez said she’d get the exact figures from the state pool.
Councilor Gena Jensen asked the city to provide services like roadblocks, dumpsters and police help for the upcoming Christmas Parade, as the organizers had missed the deadline for the Visit Casper/City Impact Grant. She said float registration is now open, with an early-bird price of $35 before it rises to $50.
Mayor Ray Pacheco ended the work session by expressing appreciation for a recent assessment that recognized Casper as a safe city, an evaluation he encouraged the community to embrace.
