(Image: CHS)
A small, $1.5 million pilot program hoped to help be the start of bigger changes to how the city responds to mental health and drug crisis 911 calls is set to launch next month and Mayor Bruce Harrell is calling for more money so support the department behind the program next year.
Harrell marked the formation of what the administration is calling “Seattle’s third public safety department” saying the new organization will align “existing community-focused and non-police public safety investments and programs” as it joins the Seattle Police Department and Seattle Fire Department in protecting the city.
Community Assisted Response and Engagement — or, in the Harrell administration’s love for warm-sounding acronyms, CARE —Â is part of the next step in what the city has been calling a “dual dispatch” approach to providing better social support and resources while freeing up police to handle higher priority calls.
Harrell says he is calling for a $6 million increase in the department’s funding as part of his proposed budget for next year.
The pilot launching in October will transition the former Community Safety and Communications Center to include the deployment of social workers and behavioral health specialists with Seattle Police Department officers for a limited set of circumstances when mental health expertise is needed and the situation is deemed safe for non-police intervention.
The launch comes amid increased criticism of Chief Adrian Diaz and skepticism around traditional policing in the city sparked by recent recorded comments from Seattle Police officers illustrating troubling biases and cynicism including the body cam video that captured a police union vice president making flippant remarks about Jaahnavi Kandula after she was struck and killed by a speeding police officer.
It also arrives as city leaders have signed the department up for a possible crackdown on public drug use in the city.
Backers hope CARE and efforts like “dual dispatch” will be the start of needed change and could help the city provide more substantial responses to the flood of so-called “welfare check” calls that come into 911 dispatchers from Capitol Hill and across the city every day.
Under the pilot, 911 calls dispatched involving someone suffering a mental crisis will include the specialists arriving with police at situations that don’t involve someone who is injured or sick, an “imminent danger,” weapons, or narcotics.
The program comes as the city has transitioned its 911 procedures to include a “quality assurance” software system already in use for Seattle Fire dispatch that officials say will take some of the guesswork out of the dispatching process by suggesting “questions for complicated situations,” suggesting follow-up questions, and help to standardize the dispatch process to “reduce implicit bias.” The 911 dispatch changes join other logistical overhauls underway at SPD. Earlier this year, SPD announced a new scheduling strategy designed to make better use of available officers as the department tries to boost its ranks.
There are more than 10,000 calls to 911 a week in Seattle but only about 60% involve the dispatch of Seattle Fire or police, the city says. Any calls where mental crisis appears to be an issue — and no priority safety situations have been reported — could be a call where the dual dispatch workers could be included.
Harrell’s budget proposal would increase the CARE department budget by 30% in 2024 from 2023, “hiring 13 additional full-time staff, making needed technology upgrades, and investing in enhanced violence intervention efforts.” Harrell is proposing a budget of $26.5 million, a “significant increase” from the Community Safety and Communications Center’s 2023 budget of $20.5 million.
The new department will have three divisions: emergency call takers and dispatchers in the 911 Center, community-focused public safety responders including behavioral health professionals, and violence intervention specialists currently “siloed in different departments.”
Meanwhile, Harrell said the “Dual Dispatch” pilot has fully hired its initial pilot teams and training started last week.
Amy Smith, deputy director of the CSCC, is leading the new department. The city says Smith holds “advanced degrees” in ethical leadership, administration, and organizational learning, and recently completed a doctorate at Vanderbilt University “where she honed her data science and behavioral research skills.”
A full announcement from the city on the new department is below:
Mayor Harrell Announces Investments Supporting Upcoming Launch of CARE – Seattle’s New Public Safety Department
Today, Mayor Bruce Harrell provided updates regarding the upcoming launch of Seattle’s new Community Assisted Response and Engagement (CARE) department, detailing the vision, timelines, and staffing progress for the department, including his proposal for a $6 million increase in the department’s budget.
In a preview of next week’s budget announcement, Mayor Harrell is proposing to increase the CARE department budget by 30% in 2024 from 2023, hiring 13 additional full-time staff, making needed technology upgrades, and investing in enhanced violence intervention efforts. Formerly the Community Safety and Communications Center (CSCC), the mayor is proposing a budget of $26.5 million, a significant increase from the department’s 2023 budget of $20.5 million.
“Our new CARE department will deliver on Seattle’s long-standing need for a public safety system with diverse emergency response options designed to meet community needs. Building on lessons learned locally and from around the country, we will build a stronger public safety system and a safer Seattle for all residents,” said Mayor Harrell. “This has been a priority since Day One of my administration – and we are grateful for the insight of experts and community leaders from inside and outside of government who continue to be thoughtful partners in this work. We will continue to work together as we seek to build a public safety system recognized for its commitment to building a safe, welcoming, and thriving city for all the people of Seattle.”
Advancing a new approach and learning from best practices implemented by other jurisdictions, CARE will be Seattle’s third public safety department, aligning existing community-focused and non-police public safety investments and programs. The new department will have three divisions: emergency call takers and dispatchers in the 911 Center; community-focused public safety responders including behavioral health professionals; and violence intervention specialists currently siloed in different departments.
Mayor Harrell announced that the Dual Dispatch pilot program – a collaborative effort between the Mayor’s Office and the City Council – will begin work in October. The CARE department will work closely with the Seattle Police Department (SPD) and Seattle Fire Department (SFD) to identify the appropriate types of calls, starting with low-risk priority 3 and priority 4 person down and welfare check calls. The Dual Dispatch pilot has fully hired its initial pilot teams and training has started this week.
The CARE department will be led by Amy Smith, Ed.D., Deputy Director of the CSCC, announced Mayor Harrell. Acting Chief Smith has led design and launch efforts for the new Dual Dispatch pilot program and administrative business functions of the department. Following her successful efforts leading the department’s transition, CSCC Interim Director Rebecca Gonzales will return to her command position with the Seattle Fire Department (SFD).
“It is deeply gratifying to participate in a such a significant moment in Seattle public health and safety,” said Acting CARE Department Chief Amy Smith. “I applaud the willingness of this Mayor and City Council to reimagine first response, to center what is best for community, and to balance optimism and pragmatism. We are positioned to use resources in a more strategic and efficient way and to better support our first responders.”
“I look forward to further seeing Acting Chief Smith’s leadership and experience in action as we work to respond to complicated safety challenges with nuanced solutions,” said Mayor Harrell. “Thanks to the hard work of Interim Director Gonzales, we have rapidly improved staffing at the 911 Center and put the CARE department on a trajectory for swift and effective service. I am also thankful for the work of our 911 call takers and dispatchers – first responders who aren’t always in the limelight but work tirelessly every day to keep Seattle residents safe.”
The mayor also announced that Seattle’s 911 Center is on track to be fully staffed by the end of the year after experiencing a high vacancy rate and long recruitment and onboarding timelines. Through improved recruitment, hiring, and training processes, the 911 Center has hired over 45 new employees in 2023, addressing a critical need and function in Seattle’s emergency response system to ensure calls are answered in a timely, efficient, and effective manner.
As part of the City’s Youth Mental Health Initiative, Reach Out Seattle, the CARE Department will oversee the implementation of community-wide mental health training through Shine Light on Depression, creating an approach that applies mental health training throughout the city to ensure all communities are being reached in a culturally inclusive manner.
Under Mayor Harrell, the CARE department will work to create a safer city, operating with the following vision statement: “The CARE department will strive to improve public health and safety by unifying and aligning Seattle’s community-focused, non-police public safety investments to address behavioral health, substance abuse, and non-emergent, low-risk calls for service through diversified programs that are equitable, innovative, evidence-based, and compassionate.”
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How about making the new funding contingent on some sort of evaluation that the pilot program this year actually worked and doesn’t need to be tweaked or rethought?
lmao, have you ever applied this standard to anything that currently inhabits the status quo or are you just so smitten with the status quo?
As a good liberal tax payer who has voted for every freaking tax increase and progressive candidate promising to help the homeless and drug addicted only to see the problems worsen every year, I think this is a completely valid question to ask at this point. How much more money are we going to throw at this problem only to have it make no difference? And for the record, I feel that way about our pathetic public transit system, as well.
Yah think? Agreed, but a few steps ahead of you in the the absolutely, completely annoyed department of the city of Seattle arriving way too late in the game to be able to help the goat rodeo they love to virtue signal about.
You literally inhabut a situation where by most accords, the police cant or dont or wont perform their supposed integral function for a variety of reasons while having the largest budget share and sychophants who give their boots tongue baths by reflex – all while getting away with all sorts of cowboy shit…
And yet its everything else that has a 2 year timeline on a shoestring budget to prove its a full fledged program or project that works.
Seattle has a whipsaw problem where it treats public policy like a consumer product and the ebb and flow between ‘lets try this” and ‘enbiggen the police budget’ is like tides of the ocean. Perceptively, of course it feels like it doesnt make any difference because everything always resets to something that also doesnt work but feels like it should based on individual incentive theory extrapolated from commentors themselves.
That’s crazy talk-are you actually asking for accountability?! In Seattle?! No, we just feel good about throwing $$$ at problems to then never ask any questions later/ wonder why nothing ever works…
If you can band together to make cops accountable, what would stand in the way of every other facet of municipal governance? I half agree with you but actually dont deny seeing the 800 lb gorilla that is a better example and everyone that is moaning here is afraid of.
What mental health services will help those, who is violent and gives no time for preventing his/her criminal behavior?
Two days ago, I was just walking up Pike Street to donats shop. Just waking and thinking about my stuff, when suddenly a man came close to me and hit me hard on my head. I was dased but luckily I didn’t fall. My head is still feeling heavy and my ear is a bit in pain. Now I’m walking on the streets and feeling anxious, when I’m seeing anyone too close to me.
Before talking about empathy and compassion to the drugs users, talk to those who suffered from them, talk to the relatives of those, who lost lives because of them. I’m tired to see people with unpredictable behavior on the street. I don’t want everyone to experience a hit to the head to understand that we need harsh methods in dealing with this issue. Drugs are leading to personality problems, aggression and to criminal behavior. I’m wondering why people don’t see that connection. After this event, it makes me angry. I want my daughter to walk safely on the streets.
Another concern. I don’t have little kids anymore, but I see around me in the apartments. I am seeing information on people who are living around, those who were arrested for aggravated rape of the child. Why are they allowed to live in apartments where I often see kids outside without any parents around?
I really want to find all information with the names and exact addresses and post it around here. It’s unacceptable.
Washington state doesn’t have sex crime restrictions like other places, like living near schools or daycare centers.
Drug usage is a complex issue and while I don’t doubt that addled people can make others nervous or uncomfortable, harsh punishment for drug use will not curtail the problem.
If you want less unstable people on the streets, doing drugs or crime, you must work to bettering the society in which we live. To curb drug usage, you need to understand the driving factors in addiction and how to prevent using in the first place. It isn’t punishment as a deterrent.
Compassion is needed because many people are addicts AFTER other things have failed them. Our country is geared toward crushing people instead of helping them. If we worked collectively to better our safety nets, there would be less people falling through the cracks.
Yes, nice thoughts, how long do you think it will take us to “bettering the society in which we live”?!? Maybe tomorrow? Or next week? Have you read the news recently?! Your sentiment is a VERY long way off to what is the currently reality going on in the world. Wishful thinking like yours is unfortunately one of the reasons we are where we are right now.
I agree in a perfect world…but the reality is we need to find solutions now, they may not be the most perfect, but we need SOMETHING, rather than waiting around for the nebulous and next to impossible ask, like “bettering the society in which we live”.
I am so sick&tired of people suggesting that, to deal with the drug problem on our streets, we need to address the “root problems.” Sure, we need to do that, but it would take decades, and in the meantime we need to focus on what damage the addicts are doing NOW to our city, and to themselves. The new legislation will do just that.
Zach, you will find that you’ve had analogs across decades saying the same exact thing, eschewing any long term thinking for immediacy. You wanna borrow my time machine so you can go back to the 70s and 80s and tell those bozos to start thinking more long term or would a version of you in that time tell you to go kick rocks because there’s no time for that and never will be.
So sorry that happened to you. Must have been shocking. This is one reason I’ll be earning my black belt in karate soon at the age of 59. Hopefully I’ll never have to use my skills, but if somebody does try that, they’ll end up in the hospital (and/or jail cell) and not me. I urge everyone that can to take some self defense or martial arts classes. Just the basics of knowing how to deal with a physical altercation (note: getting ‘out of’ and not ‘into’ one) could potentially save your life. And the real hope is that we can live in a society where that never happens.
My phone typing made me to make spelling mistakes but I’m sure it’s clear enough to understand what I meant to say.
another hole to throw taxpayer money into…
Over policing has resulted in bodily harm and at times death when people are in crisis and 911 dispatch police for a mental health crisis. My hope is this model provides the mechanism and gives marginalized and community in crisis the reassurance that a 911 call results not in death. A model to follow is AB-988 out of California or Cahoots out of Oregon.
Cahoots is a great program! I wish we could get a version of it up here.
Sending somebody paid in six digits to handle a crisis they aren’t trained for is ‘throwing money into the hole.’ I have a lot of hope for this.
Harrell is such a joke. What a worthless, anti-poor people mayor. I never wanted a re-vote quicker than after his first year in office. Awful.
We already have a massive shortage of behavior health specialists so how on the earth is this program possibly going to help? Are we just reshuffling the available MH workers so that people not currently in crisis have even less options for regular treatment?
I agree with the concept of the program but I highly doubt the current mayor and spd’s capability of implementing it well.
This is a great point but in another way – there isnt some strategic reserve of mental health practioners, basically everyone who wants to do it and has sought the credential to do it already is there doing it. This isnt so much that they are going to poach individual oriented practioners for those with insurance but rather stretch the already relatively small labor of social services practitioner pool that isnt doing it for the love of the money, or work prospects or the scope of the work (ive seen and handled the turnover for social workers, its churn and burn for a many reasons)