Community Responder Teams Fact Sheet

Colleen Kristich — Apr 2, 2025

Community responders are first responders who respond to nonviolent, noncriminal calls without police. Over 100 American cities now use community responder teams to address low-level health and social needs, which saves police and ambulance time and allows them to respond faster to higher-priority calls.

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Community Responder Teams Fact Sheet

Colleen Kristich — Apr 19, 2023

Surprisingly, most calls to 911 are not about emergencies or crimes. In 2019, over 95% of 911 calls handled by the Erie County Sheriff were noncriminal calls for service (e.g., accidents, alarms, nonviolent disputes, etc.). Violent crimes—including murder, forcible rape, and arson—made up just 1.3% of calls.  

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The MRTA: What You Need to Know About Marijuana Legalization in New York

Miles Gresham — May 31, 2021

In March 2021, New York State adopted the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA), a historic law that legalizes the use of recreational marijuana. In doing so, the MRTA centers racial and economic justice to repair the harms caused by decades of biased marijuana enforcement. It will bring revenue from marijuana legalization to communities most impacted by criminalization. It also removes or expunges past marijuana convictions.

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The Cost of Incarceration in NYS: Erie County

Vera Institute of Justice — Apr 13, 2021

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Restorative Practices in Buffalo: Building and Rebuilding Community

Kathryn Franco — Apr 21, 2018

Restorative practices/restorative justice (RP or RJ)  is an alternative approach to our current punitive system of addressing conflict and crime. It is an age-old practice with origins in many indigenous cultures and has become increasingly popular in schools, communities and court systems in recent years. Here in Buffalo, individuals began advocating for restorative justice nearly two decades ago. Since then, many organizations, community groups, and schools have been using the practice …

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