SB 24-052

Senate Bill 24-052, which has been signed into law, ensures that Colorado's 911 Resource Center receives $250,000 annually from the state budget. This funding supports the center’s work in training and assisting 911 professionals to better handle emergency calls, especially those involving behavioral health crises. The bill requires the center to regularly survey these professionals to assess the effectiveness of its programs and report back to the Public Utilities Commission on how the money is being used. This ongoing support aims to improve efficiency and outcomes for all emergency call responses in Colorado.

Official Summary

Legislative Oversight Committee Concerning the Treatment of Persons with Behavioral Health Disorders in the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Systems. The bill requires the general assembly to annually appropriate $250,000 from the general fund to the department of regulatory agencies for use by the public utilities commission (PUC) to fund the operations of the Colorado 911 resource center (center). The center is required to provide to the PUC quarterly a report outlining the use of the funding provided, and the PUC is required to include an accounting of the expenditure and uses of this funding in an annual report that current law requires it to make to the members of the general assembly. To help ensure that the training, guidance, and assistance provided by the center to 911 professionals, including public safety access point (PSAP) personnel, local 911 emergency call service authorities, and PSAPs, is useful and is being effectively implemented, and that the funding provided by the bill is being expended efficiently and effectively, the center is required to: Survey 911 professionals regarding their perception of the quality of the training; Survey local 911 emergency call service authorities and PSAPs to determine the extent to which the training, guidance, and assistance is being implemented and the extent to which it is helping them to improve efficiency, crisis response decisions, and outcomes in response to both behavioral health crisis calls specifically and all emergency calls received; and Summarize survey results in each quarterly report to the PUC.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)