The 2023 launch CARE team (Image: City of Seattle)

(Image: City of Seattle)

Mayor Bruce Harrell is getting a federal boost in efforts to address public safety concerns in the city and the first expansion of Seattle’s growing force of non-police first responders could be rolled out in neighborhoods across Capitol Hill and the Central District including areas that have been most challenged by street disorder like upper Pike/Pine.

Harrell proposed Wednesday that $1.9 million in federal funding should be used to power an expansion of the city’s policing alternative Community Assisted Response and Engagement team that will increase the size of the department and expand it to citywide, seven day a week service starting with an expansion including Capitol Hill and the Central District.

The Seattle City Council will take up the proposal as part of its mid-year budgeting efforts.

In September, CHS reported on the launch of what Harrell called Seattle’s “third public safety department.” The small, $1.5 million CARE team pilot program was hoped to help be the start of bigger changes to how the city responds to mental health and drug crisis 911 calls. It included funding for only six responders and has been hampered by limitations on the types of 911 calls it is allowed to respond to.

With a new contract agreement with the city’s police officers that includes the ability to move more work around public safety like automated traffic tickets and property damage to teams outside the department and the federal funding, the Harrell administration is now moving forward with quickly expanding the CARE pilot to what it says will be a full-fledged, citywide effort.

Businesses around the Pike/Pine/Broadway core have called on Harrell and the city to do more to address ongoing street disorder in the area related to drug addiction, mental health, and homelessness including providing more first responders and more funding for clean-up and “street ambassador” programs.

CARE is hoped to help address some of the growing concerns around the area. Backers hope CARE and efforts like its “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 from Capitol Hill and across the city every day.

Under the program, 911 calls dispatched involving someone suffering a crisis can include CARE specialists arriving with police at situations — as long as those incidents don’t involve someone who is injured or sick, an “imminent danger,” weapons, or narcotics, under current policies.

Proponents say the pilot has been a success.

“Data from the pilot has shown through hundreds of emergency dispatch calls that CARE responders were able to safely assist community members in need and free up scarce police resources for higher priority calls,” the announcement from Harrell’s office reads.

In the announcement, Harrell thanked Democratic Congressman Adam Smith and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal for supporting the funding.

Growing CARE has been a core goal for the mayor’s public safety efforts including efforts to increase the number of police, a crackdown on street disorder and drug use, and increased spending on police alternatives including CARE hoped to provide better, more direct response to issues around homelessness, addiction, and mental illness while allowing police to focus on more serious crimes.

The city says the CARE team safely responded to over 500 dispatch calls, “with an average response time of less than ten minutes and an average time on scene of 39 minutes” —

88% of calls came primarily from police officers requesting assistance and the remaining 12% were dispatches from the 9-1-1 Center for known high utilizers of emergency services. The most common request on calls, 38%, involved transport to locations such as shelters and day centers, a timely process that previously would have taken police away from other safety priorities.

“Other common responses include direct behavioral interventions and crisis de-escalation, resource navigation and assistance finding services, and connecting people with basic supplies like food, water, clothing, and hygiene items,” the city’s announcement said.

CARE has also been successful in freeing up police officers, the city says. “As a mark of the success of the pilot, data for April and May shows that across 125 total calls, SPD was able to secure the scene, hand off to CARE, and leave for other priorities over half the time,” the announcement reads. “An analysis of 9-1-1 calls from 2023 found approximately 8,000 calls which could be appropriate for the CARE Community Crisis response team under expansion plans.”

The city says the expansion plan will segment Seattle into three phases of response zone expansion Central, corresponding to SPD’s East and West precincts, North, corresponding to the North precinct and split into two sub-zones of Northeast and Northwest along I-5, and South, corresponding the South and Southwest precincts.

The zones were arrived at by analyzing 911 calls to determine the best way to balance demand across areas of the city. The Central zone across the West and East Precinct will likely remain the city’s busiest area for the types of “low acuity” calls the team can respond to.

As part of planned citywide expansion, the CARE department will add “five secure locations to deploy from.” Those locations are likely to be within existing city facilities.

The first phase of the expansion will add 18 responders and three supervisors “in the coming months” and will immediately extend the current service area to include Capitol Hill, Central Area, First Hill, Judkins Park, Madison Park, Montlake, and upper Pike/Pine.

Funding must still be secured to continue the expansion to the rest of Seattle.

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