Albany County launches care team to pair police, mental health experts

Albany County is changing how Laramie police, sheriff’s deputies and University of Wyoming officers respond when a call is really a mental-health crisis. Under the Albany Care Team, the first response still starts with law enforcement, but the county is pairing officers with mental health expertise instead of sending police alone into every situation.

The program’s memorandum of understanding names the Laramie Police Department, Albany County Sheriff’s Office, University of Wyoming Police Department and Volunteers of America Northern Rockies as partners. It took effect Nov. 15, 2023, ran through June 30, 2025, and can renew annually for up to five years as long as the participating chiefs and sheriff remain in office.

The agreement puts real money behind the shift. The community crisis case manager costs $80,000 a year in salary and benefits, with Albany County, the City of Laramie and the University of Wyoming each contributing $20,000 annually.

In practice, the program is built to route repeated mental-health crisis calls to community crisis case manager Heather Wiseman, while officers still make the initial contact using de-escalation and Crisis Intervention Team training. A Wyoming Public Media report said the model also used tablets after hours to connect callers with mental health providers, with plans for in-person response on some calls later. That is the operational difference residents should notice: not just a patrol car at the door, but a system designed to steer people toward treatment, telehealth and follow-up instead of defaulting to jail or a long emergency-room wait.

That matters in Albany County because the program’s own agreement says the partners understand the strain mental-health-related calls place on law enforcement and community resources. The goal is to reduce repeat 911 contacts, keep more people out of court when possible and give officers a better option when the same household keeps calling for help. Volunteers of America Northern Rockies has said the effort builds on earlier Gatekeeping and Crisis Intervention Team work that already connected some people to stabilization, outpatient and residential services in Laramie.

The City of Laramie is still treating the program as an active public-safety effort. A March 17, 2026 presentation carried the heading “Albany Care Team Right Response. Right Resource. Right Time.” and referenced “ACT Strategies Albany County Care Team 2024 Statistics,” a sign the county is measuring whether the new model changes what happens after the call comes in.