The manager of Crisis Alternative Response Eureka said the team that offers mental health crisis intervention for 911 calls will be staffed seven days a week by the end of February in a presentation to the Community Oversight on Police Practices board on Tuesday.
Plus, Eureka’s police chief said the department’s call volume is down during a report, attributing the change to a proactive policing effort.
Jacob Rosen, managing mental health clinician for CARE, said the program is aiming for Feb. 22 for the start of daily coverage. The hours currently run 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Following off-hours, staff members review calls EPD received the next day, and initiate some kind of follow-up, he said. But this causes a delay that is soon set to shrink.
“The calls that come in Friday evening are now going to get attended to on Saturday morning, as opposed to Monday morning,” he said.
He said the team believes the system is established to support this, but staffing has been the big hurdle.
The office currently has 6.5 staff members. The staffing allowing for the new weekend coverage was a result of a contract with Humboldt County’s Department of Behavioral Health to fund the team with $225,000, said Rosen.
Work to bolster and grow the team has resulted in another milestone. As of March 2025, a CARE team can respond to certain calls without police.
“We actually implemented true alternative response, where, if they pass a screen which we develop with dispatch and command staff, then we can actually send our own team in place of officers,” he said.
A team of at least two can respond to calls. The calls must be mental health-related, with no violence, weapons or history of violence, he said.
CARE continues to expand. A second contract is in the works to allow for the team to provide mobile crisis benefit services on behalf of the county, which will allow for reimbursement from Medi-Cal. With the program growing steadily, Rosen said a goal after implementing this contract is to stabilize and take a pause.
“We need to establish that baseline,” he said.
EPD call volume down
During the meeting, Eureka Police Chief Brian Stephens gave an update on the department’s efforts. During a presentation, he said call volume in 2025 shrank. Stephens attributed the change to an effort to get the department back to proactive policing, recovering from a period with low staffing and long shifts.
“With our staffing issues, with being on 12s, we didn’t require the self-initiated activity to be as high as it is, just because officer burnout, wellness and just having to take care of a higher number of calls for service,” he said.
Since then, staffing has stabilized at the department, though vacancies remain.
Eureka Police Department’s calls for service in 2025 have consistently fallen below recent years. (Screenshot/Eureka Police Department)
Stephens said Comm. Leonard La France pushed to reestablish EPD as a proactive agency as he took over patrol.
“Going into 2025, we changed that mentality. It took time to get buy-in, change within the department, because some people, some officers, have only worked in that mindset, and they’ve never felt or seen what it was like to be a proactive agency. But in due time, and a very short time, actually, that change began, the buy-in was there, and now it’s just become a way of life,” he said.
“The officers are on the street more. They’re out there making more stops and making more contacts, they’re making more arrests,” he said.
Stephen said officer-initiated incidents have gone up significantly, with an 86% increase since last year. There’s been a 241% increase of traffic stops.
Meanwhile, 911 calls have shrunk by 15% since the year before. Calls for service and non-emergency calls have additionally shrunk.
Sage Alexander can be reached at 707-441-0504