1. Albuquerque Community Safety Department Marks Milestone—Has Responded To More Than 150,000 Calls For Service. The City of Albuquerque’s much-lauded Community Safety Department has released its latest data, marking a significant milestone: the nation’s first community safety department has now responded to 156,540 calls for service.
The city reported that the Community Safety Department “has continued demonstrating growth and increasing capacity… [responding to] calls primarily focusing on mental health, homelessness, and addiction that do not require a police response,” and that through April of the city’s current fiscal year, the unit has “responded to 37,140 calls for service… a 12.3% increase” compared to the same time last year and is “projected to respond to almost 49,520 calls for service” by the end of the fiscal year—the largest number of calls the unit has ever fielded in a single fiscal year. Here’s a look at the city’s data, to date:
Almost five years ago, Albuquerque—under Mayor Tim Keller’s leadership—launched the country’s first community safety department. The program houses the city’s civilian responder teams and is what local leaders call “the third branch of public safety,” co-equal with the police department and fire department. Now, Albuquerque’s Community Safety Department has become a national model for other cities and counties looking to community safety departments to help modernize their public safety infrastructure, with its own headquarters, sub-stations similar to a police department to decrease response time, and its own responder training academy—which “expand [its] capacity to respond to [] 911 and 311 calls,” just graduated its second responder cohort to staff its teams, last month.
The city’s full report is worth your time, but here are some of the other topline trends from ACS:
- ACS responders freed up more than “31,000 public safety hours… for police and fire to focus on high-priority emergencies [in 2025]… by handling non-violent, behavioral health and community service calls, ACS continues to strengthen coordinated public safety efforts…”
- ACS responders are “self-initiating [calls for service] less often due to the high volume of both 911 and 311 calls for which the ACS has a dedicated team of responders assigned to in order to respond to as quickly as possible…. the team is continuing to field thousands of 911 calls.”
- ACS responders “transported 4,311 individuals in crisis to essential services in 2025 a 30% increase from the previous year… transports connected residents to medical care, behavioral health support, substance use treatment, and shelter…”
Albuquerque Deputy Chief of Police Luke Languit, a champion of the Community Safety Department, spoke at a press conference last year and explained why the Albuquerque Police Department officers so deeply value the Community Safety Department:
“Before we had this third branch of public safety these calls for service would have gone to police and fire… the majority of the calls would have gone to [Albuquerque Police Department]. These are situations where yourselves or your neighbors or our friends and family—they’re having an emergency and they need help, so it’s great to have this department that is staffed with the right individuals—the right responders—that have the training to deal with individuals that may be going through a behavioral crisis where there is no crime present. So to have responders that are equipped to properly come to these situations and provide those resources makes it so successful.
I can tell you… the Albuquerque police officers that are out here in our community, they’re now able to focus more time on those felony crimes … and we’re able to bring down our crime rates because we have this third branch of Public Safety taking those calls for service for us. For all the ACS responders out there, on behalf of the Albuquerque Police Department—your work is so much appreciated and it does not go unnoticed, thank you.”
2. Mobile Crisis Response Teams Reducing Strain On Police, ERs—And Increasing Public Safety Around The Country.
- In Durham, North Carolina, “HEART Program Shows Major Drop In Crime Reports Since Inception, Reshapes Crisis Response.” For ABC11 News, Akilah Davis reports that now, four years since its launch, Durham city leaders say that the HEART program has grown into a “national model” for mobile crisis response that, according to city data, has “reduced crime reports by nearly 60% and arrests by 56% while improving response times by more than three minutes,” and as Safer Cities recently reported, the HEART team recently marked a significant milestone of responding to more than 40,000 calls for service, saving Durham police “more than 8,000 hours in the last year alone, allowing officers to focus on calls requiring law enforcement presence.”
The HEART team, which “operates seven days a week for 15 hours a day with 51 staffers, though demand exceeds capacity,” responds to mental health and behavioral health-related calls for service, often pairing a trained clinician with another expert to aid people in the throes of a crisis. Ryan Smith, director of the community safety department and HEART’s first employee, who “helped build the program from the ground up”, ABC News noted, explained to the news station that “early skepticism [of the program and its role in the public safety infrastructure] has shifted as more officers see its impact… ‘every year we’ve seen growth in the number of calls we’re being sent to, and police officers showing up on scene saying, actually, what we need here is HEART.’”
- In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, New Mobile Crisis Response Team “Responds To Thousands Of 911 Calls In First Year.” For The Daily Oklahoman, Jessie Christopher Smith reports on the promising first year of the city’s Alternative Response Team, which deploys trained mental and behavioral health professionals to 911 “mental health-related emergency calls [instead of] police… who can better address the caller’s needs.” In the first year of operation, the team is off to a strong start—according to city data reviewed by the newspaper, police historically responded to around 9,600 mental health calls for service annually, and “OKC police were primarily expected to handle behavioral health emergency calls by placing a person in protective custody.” But when ART first launched, the number of mental health-related calls to law enforcement quickly dropped to 6,900. Now, ART has responded to “more than 5,000 calls for service involving mental health issues since May 2025.”
Housed in the city’s Fire Department, the mental health responders are “comprised of four teams, including a Crisis Call Diversion team that triages and assesses behavior health-related calls at the 911 Communications Center; A Crisis Response Team [that] will respond to emergencies… [a unit that responds to] overdoses and less-acute mental health needs; and a [team] also exists for residents relying on 911 services involving non-emergency needs.”
Oklahoma City Police Department Sgt. Mark Fields, a champion of the mobile crisis response team explained to the newspaper that, “he and several other officers often wondered how effective they were actually being in helping people with mental health emergencies… [but now feels that] ‘…it’s amazing to be able to turn around and say, ‘Hey, I’m at the limit of what I can do, but here are these people that are not police… but they can connect you directly to services and they can follow up in regards to your mental health… they have a deeper knowledge base as far as conditions and medication and treatment options, and things like that.” Police Lt. Tim Land, who works with Fields, added that the team, “is game-changing, and I can see them being the cornerstone of Oklahoma City’s mental health response… as opposed to they’re helping us, we’re really kind of helping them. It’s a top-tier program. Oklahoma City is really lucky to have it.”
- In North Carolina, New Mobile Crisis Teams For Children Are Keeping Kids “Out Of The ER,” And Reducing Strain On Law Enforcement, By Sending Mental Health Workers Directly To Families’ Homes. For North Carolina Health News, Taylor Knopf reports on North Carolina’s new MORES program—“mobile outreach, response, engagement and stabilization”—which sends specialized mobile crisis teams directly to children and families experiencing behavioral health crises with the explicit goal of preventing unnecessary emergency room visits, psychiatric institutionalization, and repeated 911 calls that often pull in law enforcement response. The teams, now operating across 20 counties, pair “a licensed clinician trained in adolescent care and a family peer support specialist” and respond to the house before continuing in-home stabilization and follow-up support “for up to eight weeks after the initial visit.” Hospital leaders say the impact has already been dramatic—before the program, many children arrived through 911 and law enforcement transport and remained stuck in emergency rooms for weeks or months, but after partnering with MORES teams, one North Carolina pediatric emergency department saw the share of rooms occupied by long-term behavioral health “social holds” drop from “50 percent to 70 percent” of pediatric rooms to “fewer than 10 percent.”
Related: In Columbus, Ohio, voters overwhelmingly approved a new community crisis response amendment, with 77% voting in favor, formally creating a citywide mobile crisis response system of “clinicians, EMTs and social workers who will respond to emergency calls” involving mental health-related calls for service, WOSU News reported. The measure consolidates and expands the city’s alternative response infrastructure, including the mental health experts embedded in 911 dispatch, ensuring people in crisis receive “the right response at the right time,” reducing reliance on law enforcement for mental health-related calls.
3. Cities Turning To Crisis Stabilization Centers, Instead Of ERs And Jails, To Provide “Somewhere Safe For Individuals To Go” And Receive Treatment.
- In Travis County, Texas, County Leaders Move Forward On $86 Million Mental Health Center, “Offering Alternative To Incarceration… While Providing Treatment And Stabilization Services.” For Community Impact, Jessica Mclaren reports on the county’s investment in “a permanent [crisis stabilization] facility that would build on the success of pilot programs the [city and county] have been operating since 2023… [that] will offer an alternative to incarceration [for patients] with mental health or substance abuse issues while providing treatment and stabilization services.” The commitment of the funds from the county “stems from a 2023 report from the Travis County Forensic Mental Health Project, which found roughly 40% of all people in Travis County Jail—and 70%-80% of those with substance abuse disorders—have mental illnesses… [and found that] people become trapped in jail while waiting for behavioral health services rather than receiving treatment.”
The new permanent facility builds on the county’s promising pilot that has delivered “24/7 psychiatric emergency services … providing immediate care for mental health crises; a therapeutic diversion center … where adults can stay up to 90 days for treatment… [and a] data-sharing system connecting Austin Police Department, Travis County Sheriff’s Office, medical entities and homeless organizations” across the city and county, since 2023. Austin Police Department Sgt. James Turner, a champion of the pilot program and permanent facility that has grown out of its success, explained at a panel in front of county leaders that “since the inception of the program, we’ve seen around 34,000 cases transferred from law enforcement to some other resource… every diversion from law enforcement provides us the opportunity to address those officers to be available for [] high-profile calls.”
- In Seattle, Washington, New Crisis Stabilization Center Provides “Somewhere Safe For Individuals To Go” And Receive Treatment, Instead Of The ER Or Jail. For The Seattle Spectator, Kean Mathis reports on Seattle and King County’s continued buildout of its new crisis stabilization facility infrastructure, including the newest center coming to Capitol Hill. County officials explained that while communities often already have “someone to call” through 988 and “someone to respond” through mobile crisis teams, “the piece that’s been missing is somewhere safe for individuals to go… Oftentimes, when a person finds themselves in crisis, there are very limited options, whether that be the emergency department or jail.” The new center aims to close that gap through walk-in urgent care, a 23-hour observation unit, and crisis stabilization services staffed by “registered nurses, psychiatric providers, medical doctors and substance use disorder specialists.” Officials say the broader crisis care system is also helping reduce pressure on first responders, with county leaders noting that 988-connected crisis services allow “EMTs, police and firefighters… to spend time doing what they are trained to do rather than responding to crises they’re not equipped to handle.”
