For NPR, Meg Anderson reports that in the last six years, mobile crisis response teams have expanded rapidly across the country: “In 2020, there were only six programs in the U.S. that sent unarmed responders… to certain 911 calls instead of police officers… [but] now, these programs… are in nearly 100 cities.” These highly trained teams dispatch clinicians, peer specialists and other expert responders to calls that do not require a law enforcement response, including some mental health-related calls for service, behavioral-health crises, welfare checks, and other quality-of-life calls.
Anderson reports that some of the cities with more mature teams—including Durham, Denver and Eugene, which Safer Cities has covered—now have a growing body of research pointing to fewer arrests, reduced reports of some crimes and greater access to medical care for the people who receive responses from these teams. Former Durham Police Chief Patrice Andrews explained to the news network that officers now see the city’s mobile crisis response team, known as HEART, as “a fourth and equal wing of 911 response, alongside police, fire and emergency medical services… They’re not police officers, but they are a part of the public safety net.” The full NPR report is worth your time, but here are some of the toplines:
- Durham’s HEART Has Handled More Than 25,000 911 Calls For Service. The program “now operates citywide” and includes a mobile crisis response team, a limited police-clinician co-response team and “a mental health clinician embedded in the city’s 911 call center.” Recent RTI research found HEART “is also associated with fewer arrests, that most police officers find it helpful and that police are rarely called for backup.” Durham Community Safety Director Ryan Smith says, “if you can send a social worker to a call that you could send a law enforcement officer and you got the same results, then it’s already a success.”
- Research Finds Fewer Arrests, Less Reported Crime And More Access To Care. NPR reported that “a 2022 Stanford University study of a [mobile crisis response] program in Denver found evidence that it reduced reports of certain crimes by more than a third.” A 2025 study found that Eugene’s [mobile crisis] program “reduced the likelihood of a 911 call resulting in an arrest and increased access to medical care.” In Durham, researchers have also found signs that HEART may be increasing public trust: one preliminary study found the program “has increased 911 calls,” which NPR notes could indicate that more residents are willing to call for help.
- Mobile Crisis Teams Are Expanding Beyond A Base Of Mental-Health Calls. Durham used three years of 911 data to identify nonviolent calls that could be handled by HEART, including “trespassing, panhandling, intoxication, indecency and welfare checks.” According to Amos Irwin, who studies community response programs at the Law Enforcement Action Partnership, “all the leading programs are handling calls like that” now and that “there are all kinds of calls that responders can handle that do not have mental health on the surface,” including aggressive panhandling or someone “loitering around my store, refusing to leave.”
Spotlight On Leading Mobile Crisis Response Teams Across The Country:
- In Durham, North Carolina, HEART Clients Tell Researchers: “Every City Should Have A HEART” Team. In a new preprint study, Duke researchers interviewed 22 HEART service recipients and found that they viewed the program as “a trusted and necessary resource,” with “all participants” describing positive interactions with HEART’s in-field responders. Participants said responders were “calm, compassionate, and respectful,” with one saying HEART staff “don’t really get too frustrated… [they] know how to handle situations, and how to help people in situations.” Participants also praised follow-up support: “They followed up, made sure I was okay… and they helped me to call the shelter and get on a waiting list.” All participants supported expanding HEART’s hours, and many wanted the model replicated elsewhere: “I think every city should have a HEART, because they’re just awesome, really awesome.”
- In King County, Washington, Leaders Invest More Than $2 Million To Expand Mobile Crisis Response Teams. For KIRO 7 News, Tyrah Majors reports that county leaders “recently invested more than $2 million to expand the mobile crisis-response program,” which is designed to connect people with mental health care while “reducing the need for law enforcement involvement in many behavioral health situations.” Susan McLaughlin, King County Director of DCHS, explained to the news station that the county’s “Mobile Rapid Response Crisis Teams are a team of mental health professionals who will come directly out to an individual when they’re in crisis… [and] is really the heart of our mobile rapid response model… [because in] “the majority of crisis situations, a law enforcement response really is not necessary…”
- In Madison, Wisconsin, CARES Team Celebrates Five Years Of Service, Nearly 15,000 Calls, “Reducing Reliance On Police And EMS.” The City of Madison announced that the city’s Community Alternative Response Emergency Services program, or CARES, turned five years old this month, having grown “from one team serving just the downtown area to three teams responding across all of Madison and Sun Prairie.” Since launching in 2021, CARES has handled 14,962 responses and the team “meets client needs on scene or via phone 70% of the time” and avoids ER transportation in 89% of calls, and “once CARES teams arrive on scene, additional police or fire/EMS support was not needed in 93% of calls.” Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said the program was created to divert some “behavioral health calls from law enforcement and toward community paramedics and mental health specialists,” an approach that “has proven to be incredibly effective.”
