A six-month long trial period for a new initiative implemented in Denver, Colorado, called Strategic Team Assisted Response (STAR) just released its first evaluation, revealing the promising and positive effects that this program has already had on the community.

The STAR program replaces police officers with a mobile team of healthcare workers that respond to nonviolent calls related to mental health, depression, poverty, homelessness or substance abuse. In these first six months, the team responded to 748 calls, and none required police assistance or resulted in arrests.

When responding to these incidents, the workers are equipped with food, water, hygiene products and knowledge of how to appropriately deal with mental health-related issues without using force. This more empathetic approach to policing connects people to services like shelter, food aid, counseling and medication rather than putting them into the prison system or costly unnecessary hospital visits.

The team was only active in a small area of Denver from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday through Friday during their trial period. After seeing the success of the program, the City and County of Denver allocated $1.4 million to support the STAR program in 2021. An additional $1.4 million may also be provided to the program from the Caring for Denver foundation.

This budget will allow the program to expand by purchasing four vans, hiring six two-person teams of healthcare workers and purchasing the necessary supplies to stock these units. The expansion of the program will allow them to serve a larger area for seven days a week, creating the ability to help a larger portion of the city’s population.

The success of the STAR program and other similar initiatives like the Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets (CAHOOTS) program in Eugene, Oregon, are gaining national attention and have the potential to jump-start the possibility of a national rollout of a similar program.

Our nation’s criminal justice methods have been criticized recently due to the exposure of police brutality, especially towards people of color, which are sparking a widespread call for reformation of the criminal justice system. Programs like STAR are part of these reformations that have the potential to prevent police brutality which often occurs because the police do not know how to properly handle situations with those afflicted with mental illnesses. 

According to the Treatment Advocacy Center, people with untreated mental illnesses are 16 times more likely to be killed during a police encounter. It was also discovered that individuals with untreated severe mental illness are involved in at least one in four and as many as half of all fatal police shootings. From these findings, they concluded that reducing encounters between law enforcement and individuals with untreated severe mental illness could be one of the most immediate and practical strategies to reduce fatal police shootings in the United States.

Due to these prevalent issues, programs like STAR are gaining national traction. President Biden has said that his administration would fund such initiatives that pair police departments with mental health professionals, social workers, substance use disorder experts and disability advocates.

Enjoy it while it lasts, football fans; it’s not every day you see images and videos from some of the earliest, greatest games of football of all time. National Football League (NFL) films just recently dug up the rare footage of the very first Super Bowl between the Green Bay Packers and none other than the Kansas City Chiefs. This anniversary game parallels the contest’s history and features two teams that represent the past and future of the NFL and are about as different as you can get both on and off the field: the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos.

There is absolutely nothing pretty about the way the Denver Broncos have won games this football season. However, the fact of the matter is that they do still win and have won enough to make it to the Superbowl. Every single week, this 12-4 team gets another “W” from the most unlikely of places on their schedule. From their week-two win in Kansas City with a last-second “scoop-and-score” off of a Jamaal Charles fumble, to their week-six overtime win at Cleveland, to their week-11 overtime win against the Patriots with a 48-yard touchdown run from backup running back C.J. Anderson, it has been a roller coaster season for the Broncos.

Their average margin of victory has only been 3.7 points, without even discussing their back-and-forth quarterback tag-team duo. They have been completely carried this far by their defense, widely regarded as the best in the NFL. Statistically, they allow the fewest opponent yards per game of any NFL defense, and they rank top five in fewest opponent points per game.

Football fans saw this defense on display against the future Hall-Of-Famer Tom Brady in this year’s American Football Conference (AFC) championship game as Denver knocked Brady down 14 times, sacked him four times and intercepted him twice. This was statistically the worst playoff game of the four-time champion’s career. The Patriot’s offensive line was not prepared for the Bronco’s defense, so it will be interesting to see if the Panther’s offensive line has what it takes to withhold the Bronco’s intimidating pass rush.

Not only have the Carolina Panthers and Cam Newton lit up the field every week en route to their historic 15-1 record, they made it look easy. Whether it was by land or by air, Most Valuable Player (MVP) frontrunner Newton had a touchdown in literally every game of the season. He accounted for 40 total touchdowns, 35 passing, five rushing and almost 4,500 yards of total offense. In three games, he threw five touchdown passes. This was all after losing his number one receiver for the season to a torn ACL.

The Panthers dominated the NFL this year, with their average margin of victory at 12 points. Not surprisingly, this accompanied boasting the NFL’s highest scoring offense and best turnover ratio of any team this season. It has seemed all too easy for the Panthers, and they will try to capitalize on their hard-earned momentum this Sunday in San Francisco.

Some key matchups to watch for on this Super Bowl Sunday are Carolina’s offensive tackles Michael Oher and Mike Remmers trying to protect Newton from Denver’s pro bowl pass rushers Von Miller and Demarcus Ware. Another promising matchup is Panthers linebacker and former defensive player of the year Luke Kuechly who has had a pick-six in each of Carolina’s last two games, reading and watching the eyes of future Hall-Of-Famer and Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning. Finally, if there is anything besides “the dab” we have learned from the Panthers’ 2015 season, it’s that anyone matched up with defensive player of the year frontrunner Josh Norman is going to have a rough day. Expect the Carolina Corner to give either Demaryius Thomas or Emmanuel Sanders a Super Bowl to forget.

The Las Vegas odd-makers currently have Carolina as a six-point favorite over the Denver Broncos. These odds-makers usually know what they’re talking about, as their chosen favorite has won 67 percent of Super Bowl matchups.

As this Super Bowl very well might be the last for Manning, it seems like it may very well also be just one of the first for Newton. It is about the most transparent passing-of-the-torch one will ever see in sports. So as we enjoy reminiscing the history of the Super Bowl and professional football, we also have an opportunity to look ahead, to look forward to future Super Bowls with a new elite quarterback on the scene. Whether you like the Panthers, the Broncos or the sport in general, enjoy the fanfare and history surrounding the pinnacle of one of America’s great pastimes.

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