Opinion: It’s official: Non-police first responders work and America needs more of them

In 1989, Eugene, Ore., became one of the first cities in the U.S. to send social workers and health care providers , rather than police, to certain emergency calls.

Back then, many people had never even heard of such a concept. But in 2020, after the brutal murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer and the subsequent protests that emerged, cities around the country began to reimagine what community safety looks like.

Over the next two years, dozens of cities created alternative crisis response programs of some kind. Today, many of those cities are seeing the fruits of their investment, through a reduced burden on police, savings in tax-payer dollars and a reduction in crime.

These programs exemplify the success that can result from a willingness to rethink the status quo on community safety.

In the first few months that Denver introduced its Support Team Assistance Response (STAR) program, Stanford University researchers found that low-level crime fell by 34 percent in neighborhoods where the team operated.

Since its inception in 2020, the Albuquerque Community Safety (ACS) department has increased its monthly call volume fourfold, diverting over two-thirds of its calls from police.

Durham’s Holistic Empathetic Assistance Response Team (HEART) program has also been lauded as a success and is quickly emerging as a model for other cities to follow. Since launching in June 2022, program staff have responded to more than 12,000 calls involving trespassing, mental health crises, welfare checks and more.

Many of these programs have the full support of police, who are relieved to not have to act as social workers or counselors, which they aren’t trained to be. They’re also popular with Americans across the political divide.

We know this because we recently conducted research in key battleground districts and nationally to better understand what likely voters want when it comes to safety. In a recently published national survey that asked which proposals likely voters think will help most in improving safety in communities, 72 percent of people said “sending behavioral health care workers to certain calls related to mental health, substance use and homelessness” would help some or a lot — a response that outperformed “putting 100,000 more police officers on the streets” by 10 points.

Although there is clear voter appetite for rethinking how we keep communities safe and countless examples of successful city-level initiatives, if we are to scale them to a level that will truly change America’s approach to public safety, it will take more. It will take buy-in from Congress.

We will be at the Capitol this week with ACLU leadership from our national office and state affiliates around the country for our inaugural “Community Safety Week,” to meet with members of Congress, who are in the process of deciding how to appropriate vital tax-payer dollars for fiscal year 2025. We’ll be joined by community partners and experts in violence intervention, public health, opinion research and public policy, to urge members of Congress to make sound investments in the long-term safety of our communities.

We have too often seen essential resources — mental health care, housing, education and employment opportunities — sacrificed in favor of increasing the reach and power of police forces. And we know all too well that our nation’s overreliance on police and incarceration disproportionately harms Black people and their communities, people experiencing addiction and mental health issues and people who are unhoused .

More of the same is not the answer. It’s time for a transformative shift in how we perceive and implement public safety.

To create lasting and true community safety, we need just and equitable systems that prevent crime and interrupt violence at every turn, and give people who have been swept up by the criminal legal system a chance to recover from the harm.

That’s why we should invest in non-police trained responders who are experts in crises related to mental health, addiction and homelessness. We’re urging Congress to fully fund Mobile Crisis Response funding in the 2025 fiscal year Labor, Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) appropriations title so that local communities who don’t already have these critical safety programs, can create them.

These aren’t just pie-in-the-sky ideas. We already have all the evidence we need to tell us that we shouldn’t just double down on failed, past approaches. We should follow the lead of cities that have pioneered new approaches and give communities the resources they need to scale them.

Congress holds the purse strings and should allocate money in ways that reflect the will of the people.

Cynthia W. Roseberry is director of Policy & Government Affairs at the ACLU’s Justice Division

Ellen Flenniken is deputy director of the ACLU’s Justice Division

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.