Dr. Nikki Johnson is the Denver Sheriff Department’s first chief of mental health services and is charged with improving in-custody mental health services
The Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets unit, CAHOOTS for short, sends teams of medics and trained mental health workers to urgent calls for medical or psychological help instead of police
The city will go forward with both a pilot program that excludes police and a separate co-responder plan that includes police officers, paramedics and mental health professionals