July SCAC Meeting

Community Statement in Support of STAR Community Advisory Committee

Launched in June of 2020, STAR is a program envisioned and initiated by community groups and individuals that serves as a direct alternative to policing in Denver. Since its launch, the community that created STAR has struggled through disrespectful behavior, racism, and gate-keeping to maintain involvement and community control of the program. Tensions have increased in recent months, punctuated by the last STAR Community Advisory Committee (SCAC) meeting on July 27.

The community representatives on the SCAC are essential to ensure that STAR operates in a way that is accountable to the most vulnerable in our community. The SCAC is intended to serve as a venue for the community to discuss concerns, make suggestions, and guide the program as it continues to expand.

The behavior of Denver Department of Public Health and Environment (DDPHE) staff at the July 2022 SCAC meeting towards community representatives was unacceptable. Unilateral decisions were made to shut down the meeting when BIPOC committee members were expressing their frustrations with the continued gatekeeping and lack of transparency in decision making. The decision to abruptly end the meeting is the most recent action in a continued pattern of disrespect and hostility that DDPHE staff have shown SCAC members and the community as a whole. By ending the monthly SCAC meeting, they effectively silenced the voices of the community by disrupting one of the only routes that community members have to make their concerns known.

Community representatives on the committee have been continually dismissed and tokenized in a manner that demonstrates not just a lack of commitment from city officials to work in true collaboration with the community, but outright hostility to true partnership. It is unacceptable how community members have been treated. We demand increased community control of the STAR program in a way that ensures marginalized voices are heard. The undersigned organizations, groups, and community leaders support the SCAC and demand the community representatives take an expanded role in leading the committee, and that the city commit to shared governance. Their voices and decisions must be central to STAR governance and decision-making processes, or the STAR program will never be fully realized as a true alternative to policing in Denver.

Organizations / Groups: