Arapahoe County behavioral-health team handled 2,386 calls in 2025
The sheriff’s office pairs six licensed clinicians with deputies for community crisis response and offers treatment and re-entry services in the detention system.
Arapahoe County’s Behavioral Health Response Team handled 2,386 calls in 2025, according to the sheriff’s office annual report. The team uses clinicians and deputies to respond to people experiencing behavioral-health crises.
Commissioners highlighted the work Sept. 8 while proclaiming Sept. 13–19 National Co-Responder and Crisis Responder Week. The proclamation recognizes behavioral-health clinicians, peer-support specialists and public-safety personnel who respond to mental-health and substance-use crises. The meeting record also includes remarks from Sheriff Brown about behavioral-health needs among people in the county detention facility.
The county’s 2025 annual report lists 15,025 detention bookings, an average daily population of 911 and an average stay of 22 days. Bookings increased 12% from 2024, while the average daily population increased 17%.
The county’s Behavioral Health Response Program has six full-time licensed clinicians who work with sheriff’s deputies. When dispatch identifies a behavioral-health component, a clinician may help assess the situation and determine a response, including de-escalation, a referral or transport to a crisis center, detoxification facility, designated mental-health facility or emergency department. Deputies can also refer people for follow-up when a co-responder is unavailable.
The response team is separate from the detention system’s jail-based behavioral-health services. The county says that program, operated with Aurora Mental Health Center, provides onsite screening and assessments, individual therapy, group treatment and re-entry case management. Services can continue for up to a year after release, according to the county.