AMHERST — Six months after the Emergency Communications Center began dispatching some emergency calls to the town’s unarmed community responders, questions continue about whether too few are being directed to them.

In response to a concern from Town Council Vice President Ellisha Walker about the level of dispatching for Community Responders for Equity, Safety and Service (CRESS), Town Manager Paul Bockelman said Monday that a series of steps are underway to ensure the six responders are handling appropriate calls.

Bockelman said he, along with CRESS Director Camille Theriaque, Police Chief Gabe Ting and Emergency Communications Director Jason Rushford, are regularly reviewing dispatch calls and their outcomes. This work includes looking at calls that could have been dispatched, calls that should not have been dispatched, and calls that came in after the responders’ work days concluded at 4 p.m.

This process will continue through the remainder of 2026, with a current estimate that there could be 13 to 15 additional calls per month going to CRESS.

But Bockelman said the number of calls CRESS responds to isn’t all that relevant.

“Maybe it’s the right number, maybe it’s not, I don’t know,” Bockelman said. “My argument is that CRESS isn’t going to live or die by dispatch calls, it’s already proven its worth in many ways.”

Because it has a different mission from police, CRESS is able to dedicate more time to calls and doing follow-up work.

“CRESS is succeeding on its own without requiring dispatch, intervening upstream before there is a call to dispatch,” Bockelman said.

CRESS also obtained an emergency scanner so its responders can self-dispatch, to help police officers and firefighters at certain incidents.

Bockelman said the service levels for CRESS are similar to Northampton’s Division of Community Care. “We’re about the same as Northampton,” Bockelman said.

He said Northampton is engaging the Law Enforcement Action Partnership for a review of its activity, something Amherst will likely do.

At a recent Community Safety and Social Justice Committee meeting, Theriaque said calls from dispatch have been steadily increasing, mostly for well-being checks. “Things have definitely taken an upswing,” Theriaque said.

Chairwoman Debora Ferreira, though, said she wants to make sure dispatch is contacted whenever there is a call that doesn’t involve violence.

“I want to see a lot more numbers coming in from dispatch,” Ferreira said. She said the dispatch numbers should be a few a day rather than a few a week.

Theriaque reflected on a recent all-hands-on-deck incident in which CRESS was called to assist police officers and other public safety officials in doing a well-being check and locating a missing child. “They are calling us more often,” Theriaque said.

Aside from dispatch calls, CRESS is trying to meet people where they’re at, she said. It has launched what Theriaque calls the walking outreach, or the pull-up program, that goes to different areas of town, such as public parks and local businesses. There, wagons with water and snacks allow them to meet people, hand out the monthly newsletter and other CRESS materials, and explain what the department is and what it does.

She said there has been some trepidation as people worry that the responders may be police officers or even U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. But this has shown why the CRESS presence is needed, Theriaque said.

Theriaque said she would like to get from six to 10 responders, allowing expansion of hours, and notes that it is still doing a lot with a little. She would also like to restore the assistant director, a position that had sought grants to defray costs of various initiatives, noting that the twice monthly veterans breakfasts are now paid for by the Senior Center.