How Are Leaders Talking About This?

The language that works is operational, not ideological, and it has been tested. Three themes appear across every city that has successfully built a Community Safety Department, and the specific phrases that resonate share a common structure: they center public safety, clarify roles, and position the department as additional capacity rather than a replacement for anything.

If I’m having a heart attack, 911 isn’t going to send the police. Why do we do that when someone is having a behavioral health crisis?

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo¹

It’s time that we work towards getting law enforcement out of mental health. We have never claimed to be the experts, but yet we have been charged with the responsibility of responding to mental health crisis.

Austin Police Association President Michael Bullock, testimony before city council²

When a police union president says that on the record, the “anti-police” attack line collapses.

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Three Themes That Appear Across Successful Programs

Across polling, public testimony, and press coverage, three themes consistently generate broad support. Leaders who have built or sustained CSDs return to these themes whether they are addressing a city council, a press conference, or a town hall.

Theme 1: Public Safety and Role Clarity. The most common frame emphasizes sending the right professional to the right emergency. The language leaders use: “A home invasion needs a police officer. A mental health crisis needs a clinician.” This frame anchors the concept in plain logic that is hard to argue with. It avoids ideology entirely. It positions the CSD not as an alternative to police but as the right tool for a different job. Albuquerque Police Commander Luke Languit uses this frame directly: “With 100,000 calls for service, the Albuquerque police officers… 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.”³

Polling data tracks with this frame. The “right responder” argument tested at +64% net effective (82% to 18%) in national polling of 2,503 registered voters: “Community safety departments are about sending the right responder to address every problem. When the call is for a robbery in progress, we should send the police. When the call is for a mental health crisis, we should send trained mental health professionals.”⁴ The argument that tested highest, at +72% net effective (86% to 14%), explained why the current approach fails: the expertise frame noting that medical professionals “know how to recognize signs of acute mental illness, de-escalate fraught situations, and get people the help they need,” while police officers “simply don’t have this level of medical expertise and training.”⁴ That argument gets 88% of Democrats and 79% of Republicans.

Theme 2: Care That Prevents the Next Crisis. The second theme frames CSD response as solving problems rather than managing them. The person in crisis gets connected to treatment instead of cycling through jail. The neighborhood dispute gets mediated instead of escalating. The dirty needles in the park get removed instead of ignored. Leaders describe this as: every problem solved right the first time prevents the next five calls. Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper captures the frame: “Being mentally ill is not a crime and we can’t be the answer.”⁵ Helena, Montana Police Chief Brett Petty: “Everybody wins.”⁶ Durham Director Ryan Smith described the department’s hiring philosophy in terms of people who will move toward someone in crisis rather than away, the opposite of the instinct most people feel when they see someone in distress on the street.⁷

Theme 3: Efficiency and Accountability. The third theme frames CSD operations in the language of fiscal responsibility and institutional professionalism. Leaders emphasize that CSD responders are trained professionals with badges, uniforms, and clear protocols who answer to city leadership, just like police and fire. They are not contractors or volunteers. Success is measurable: are mental health calls getting resolved without arrest, are officers solving more serious crimes, are repeat calls dropping. The fiscal argument that resonates most in message testing, across both parties, is: “this prevents the same crisis from happening again and keeps officers where they’re needed most.”⁴ The Durham fiscal evaluation found the average response costs $1,191 but generates $2,093 in fiscal savings.⁸ SAMHSA data shows 23% lower per-case costs.⁹ And 72% of Republican voters say this approach is effective.⁴

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Language That Resonates, and Why

Theme	Language Leaders Use	Why It Resonates
Right Responder, Right Problem	“Police for crimes. Fire for fires and medical emergencies. Community Safety for behavioral health and public hazards.”	Anchors the concept in a three-branch structure everyone understands. Hard to argue against.
Frees Up Law Enforcement	“Community Safety has handled over 100,000 calls, most without needing a single officer. That lets police focus on violent crime.”³	Positions CSD as protecting, not replacing, law enforcement. Frames it as a force multiplier.
Broad Public Support	“Four out of five voters, Democrats and Republicans, say community safety departments make their community safer.”⁴	Establishes democratic legitimacy. Signals cross-partisan support without partisan language.
Proven Track Record	“Albuquerque’s department has handled 100,000 calls with police backup needed less than 1% of the time. This isn’t promising. It’s proven.”¹⁰	Frames the department as a success already underway, not a pilot or idea. High credibility.
Build It Like We Mean It	“Community Safety needs what police and fire have: permanent funding, professional staff, a training academy, and headquarters.”¹¹	Shows seriousness and permanence. Not an experiment.

In a randomized controlled trial testing different message frames, “police… can’t do it alone” was the best-performing message across every subgroup: age, gender, race, ideology, and 2020 presidential vote.⁴ It increased support for a hypothetical ballot measure by 4 percentage points relative to control. “Fully fund public safety” and “treatment, not trauma” also tested well, while sloganeering and anti-police language consistently underperformed.

A Michigan state survey of law enforcement professionals found 84% of sheriffs and 82% of police chiefs support having some type of specialized emergency response for some 911 calls.¹²

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Common Objections and How Officials Respond

A predictable set of objections arises in every city that proposes a Community Safety Department. Here is how officials who have successfully built them respond.

“This is just defund the police with a new name.” How officials respond: “89% of voters agree these departments allow police to focus on solving serious crimes. Police budgets are not being cut. Albuquerque’s police budget is more than twenty times larger than its Community Safety budget.¹³ This adds a third branch of public safety. It doesn’t subtract from the first two.” Why this response works: it uses specific numbers to make the additive case. The 20-to-1 budget ratio makes the “defund” charge factually absurd. 89% agreement on the “focus on serious crime” frame means the response has overwhelming public support, including majorities of Republicans.⁴

“You’re sending social workers to deal with dangerous people.” How officials respond: “These teams don’t respond to violent situations. Period. Weapons, active violence, crime in progress, those go to police. Community Safety handles the calls that aren’t crimes: welfare checks, mental health crises, public intoxication, disputes. Over 100,000 calls in Albuquerque with less than 1% needing police backup.”¹⁰ Why this response works: the hard safety boundary, enforced at dispatch, addresses the safety concern directly. The 100,000-call data point with the less-than-1% backup rate makes the safety record concrete rather than theoretical.

“We need more police, not more bureaucracy.” How officials respond: “Right now, officers are spending hours on mental health calls, mediating parking disputes, and cleaning up needles. Every hour on a non-criminal call is an hour they’re not investigating robberies, assaults, or murders. Community Safety handles those calls so officers can do what they trained for.” Why this response works: it agrees with the premise (we need effective policing) and shows how CSD achieves it. The frame is pro-police, practical, and hard to attack.

“How do you know this is safe?” How officials respond: “100,000 calls in Albuquerque with police backup needed less than 1% of the time.¹⁰ Zero police backup calls across the program’s entire history. Durham’s team has never needed backup, and 99% of staff report feeling safe.¹⁴ The safety record across hundreds of thousands of encounters is zero or near-zero serious injuries.” Why this response works: it leads with data rather than reassurance. Multiple cities, multiple programs, consistent results.

“This hasn’t been proven.” How officials respond: “Stanford University found a 34% reduction in crime in the program’s service areas.¹⁵ NBER researchers found Durham’s program pays for itself through fiscal savings of $902 per call.⁸ A Wayne State University study found civilian-only teams outperform co-response on diversion.¹⁶ Four out of five voters and four out of five law enforcement leaders support this.”¹² Why this response works: it names the institutions (Stanford, NBER, Wayne State), not just the findings. Institutional credibility matters to skeptics.

“This is too limited to make a real difference.” This objection comes from the political left, not the right. In New York City, the Correct Crisis Intervention Today (CCIT-NYC) coalition argued the city’s B-HEARD pilot “does not go far enough” and “leaves a lot of room for business-as-usual to continue.”¹⁷ CCIT-NYC has maintained that insufficient investment in mental health crisis teams, with only a handful deployed for a population of nine million, reflects a gap between stated goals and actual commitment.¹⁷ How officials respond: acknowledged as a legitimate concern about scale, not rejected as wrong. The response is operational: “Every program that now handles tens of thousands of calls started with a limited scope and expanded. Albuquerque started in 2021 and now handles 100,000 calls a year. The question isn’t whether to start small. It’s whether you start at all.”

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Language That Tests Well vs. Language That Tests Poorly

Leaders who have successfully built coalitions for CSDs avoid language that triggers partisan frames or alienates potential allies.

Language That Tests Poorly	Language Leaders Use Instead	Why the Shift Matters
“Alternative response model”	“Community Safety Department” or “Third branch of public safety”	Not alternative; it’s additional. Shows permanence and equal status.
“Divert calls from police”	“Send the right professional to each call”	Positive framing. Not taking away, just organizing better.
“Non-police responders”	“Community Safety officers” or name the specific role: “crisis counselors,” “violence interrupters,” “clean teams”	Gives them professional identity. They are not defined by what they are not.
“Defund” or “Divest”	Leaders across the political spectrum avoid these words entirely.	Toxic framing. Instant conversation killer. Unnecessary and undermines coalition-building.
“Programs” or “Initiatives”	“Departments” or “Divisions”	Programs sound temporary. Departments are permanent infrastructure.
“Reimagine public safety”	“Modernize public safety” or “Send the right responder to every problem”	Concrete, not abstract. Implies catching up, not experimenting.
“This saves money”	“This prevents the same crisis from happening again and keeps officers where they’re needed most”	Ties efficiency to public safety. Avoids sounding budget-driven.
“We need fewer cops”	Leaders across the political spectrum avoid this framing entirely.	Politically toxic, unnecessary, and undermines the coalition that makes CSDs possible.

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How Supporters and Skeptics Frame the Issue

Supporters, on their position: “We need police focused on solving murders and stopping violent crime. But right now they’re stuck spending hours on mental health calls, mediating parking disputes, and handling overdoses. That’s why we need a Community Safety Department. Send the right person to fix the right problem. Free up police to do what they trained for: fighting and solving serious crimes.”

Supporters, on the opposition: “They think the answer to everything is ‘hire more cops.’ But adding 100 officers won’t help if they’re still spending half their time on tasks that aren’t core police work. They’d rather keep the broken system than admit there’s a better way. So officers keep burning out, crimes keep going unsolved, and nothing actually gets fixed.”

Skeptics, on supporters: “This is just defunding the police with a new name. Send a social worker to deal with a dangerous person? That’s how people get hurt. We need more cops, not more bureaucracy.”

Skeptics, on their position: “Police are the thin blue line. Give them the resources and respect they deserve. Stop tying their hands with politics and let them protect our communities.”

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What Different Audiences Want to Know

What police leadership wants to know. Will this take calls off my officers’ plates? Will the department have a fallback protocol that keeps officers available when things escalate? Will my officers be consulted in the design, or is this being imposed? And will it make my department look like it’s failing? The evidence that speaks to this: Albuquerque Police Commander Luke Languit credits ACS with enabling crime reduction.³ Durham Police Chief Patrice Andrews: “What many, maybe all of us, have experienced in life is, we’re walking downtown, we see someone in crisis and the instinct is to go to the other side of the street.”¹⁴ The cities with the smoothest launches brought police leadership into the design process before the program was announced.

What police unions want to know. Does it shift budget away from the department? Does it create civilian classifications that erode police jurisdiction? Was the union consulted, or is this being imposed? Cities where unions became partners share a pattern: explicit language protecting officer staffing, joint design of fallback protocols, and genuine inclusion before the public announcement. Austin Police Association President Bullock testified before city council in support of expanding crisis response, telling council members: “I do believe it is time that we work towards getting law enforcement out of mental health.”²

What fiscal conservatives and business leaders want to know. Does it pencil out? Is this a responsible use of public money? The Durham fiscal evaluation found a net gain of $902 per call.⁸ SAMHSA data shows 23% lower costs per case.⁹ 21 states now receive 85% Medicaid reimbursement.¹⁸ And 72% of Republican voters say this approach is effective.⁴

What the budget committee wants to know. Startup costs separated from operating costs. Revenue offsets (Medicaid, state grants, dedicated revenue). Cost-avoidance projections anchored in published data (Durham’s $902 net savings,⁸ Oklahoma City’s 57% reduction in mental health dispatches¹⁹). The sustainability path: what happens after the grant expires. These are governance questions, not opposition questions. Programs that answer them clearly get funded. Programs that arrive with a vision but not a fiscal note get deferred.

What communities with negative police experiences want to know. Will this actually be different? Will the person who shows up treat my family member like a human being? Will they come without a weapon? Will they follow up? In Portland, clients of Portland’s crisis response department described feeling “treated with compassion and dignity.”²⁰ The share of unhoused residents who felt “unsafe calling 911” dropped from 57.9% to 44.9% after two years of the program.²⁰ In Durham, a resident told crisis responders: “I was really hoping it was going to be you who showed up.”¹⁴

What journalists and editorial boards want to know. Is the evidence real or is this hype? What are the limits? What could go wrong? The evidence base now includes four independent peer-reviewed or working-paper findings: Stanford (Denver, 34% crime reduction),¹⁵ NBER (Durham, program pays for itself),⁸ Wayne State (civilian-only teams outperform co-response),¹⁶ and Community Mental Health Journal (civilian-only crisis response is the only model with significant arrest reduction across multiple studies).²¹ The safety record spans hundreds of thousands of calls with zero or near-zero serious injuries. But limits remain: longitudinal data is thin, the research base covers a handful of cities, scaling to full demand is unproven, and the overnight coverage gap is unsolved.

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The Political Landscape

Community Safety Departments occupy a distinctive political position. They are attacked from the right (too risky, defund by another name) and from the left (too limited, not going far enough).¹⁷ Programs that draw fire from both directions simultaneously tend to sit in a moderate center with broad support. The polling bears this out: 82% support creating CSDs, with a 10-point partisan gap (83% Democrats, 73% Republicans) that is narrow by the standards of any public safety policy.⁴

The language that sustains that coalition is consistent: operational, not ideological. Pro-police, not anti-police. Focused on what each department does, not on what any department does wrong. “Police. Fire. Community Safety. Three departments, each doing what they’re trained to do.” That sentence has appeared, in various forms, in every city that has built a CSD that survived its first budget cycle.

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Source Appendix

1. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, public statement on crisis response. Harris County press event.

2. Austin Police Association President Michael Bullock, testimony before Austin City Council, January 30, 2025. Community Impact, Ben Thompson, February 11, 2025. https://communityimpact.com/austin/south-central-austin/government/2025/02/11/austins-responses-to-mental-health-calls-under-review-with-aim-to-reduce-police-involvement/

3. Commander Luke Languit quote. https://www.cabq.gov/acs/news/albuquerque-community-safety-marks-100-000-calls-for-service-milestone

4. Safer Cities, national surveys of 2,400-2,503 registered voters including randomized controlled testing and max-diff studies. All polling and message testing data.

5. Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper, press conference, February 4, 2025. CBS Sacramento. https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/sacramento-sheriff-explains-new-policy-to-turn-away-certain-calls-for-help/

6. Helena Police Chief Brett Petty, press release, April 2024. St. Peter’s Health: https://www.sphealth.org/stories-news/news/law-enforcement-and-behavioral-health-professionals-expand-mobile-crisis-response

7. Jeff Billman, “A New Model for Public Safety in Durham,” The Assembly NC, June 26, 2024. Smith hiring philosophy. https://www.theassemblync.com/politics/criminal-justice/durhams-new-model-for-public-safety/

8. Bocar A. Ba et al., NBER Working Paper No. 34344, October 2025. $1,191 cost, $2,093 savings, $902 net. https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w34344/w34344.pdf

9. SAMHSA, “Crisis Services: Effectiveness, Cost-Effectiveness, and Funding Strategies,” SMA14-4848. 23% lower cost per case. https://library.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/sma14-4848.pdf

10. City of Albuquerque, “Albuquerque Community Safety Department Marks Four Years,” September 2025. 120,000+ calls, <1% backup. https://www.cabq.gov/acs/news/albuquerque-community-safety-department-marks-four-years-of-impact-and-innovation

11. KRQE News 13, ACS headquarters, June 2024. https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/albuquerque-community-safety-department-headquarters-is-now-open/. CNM Academy: https://www.cnm.edu/news/cnm-and-city-of-albuquerque-launch-annual-acs-academy-to-train-alternative-first-responders

12. University of Michigan Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP), Debra Horner, “Law Enforcement Leaders’ Perspectives on Behavioral Health,” Michigan Public Policy Survey, February 2025. 84% of sheriffs and 82% of police chiefs support co-response or alternative response. Spring 2024 wave, 54 sheriffs, 234 police chiefs, 1,307 jurisdictions. https://closup.umich.edu/research/mpps

13. Murat Oztaskin, The New Yorker, February 4, 2023. 20:1 budget ratio. https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/sending-help-instead-of-the-police-in-albuquerque

14. Tradeoffs / The Marshall Project, May 2, 2025. Andrews quote, 99% felt safe, Durham resident quote. https://tradeoffs.org/2025/05/02/how-durham-north-carolina-got-police-onboard-with-unarmed-crisis-response/

15. Thomas S. Dee and Jaymes Pyne, Science Advances, June 2022. 34% crime reduction. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9176742/

16. Leonard Swanson et al., Wayne State, PRCP, May 2025. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12418740/

17. CCIT-NYC (Correct Crisis Intervention Today) coalition. Press release, November 11, 2020: Cal Hedigan states NYC pilot “does not go far enough.” https://www.communityaccess.org/storage/images/Press_Releases/Press_Release_11-11-20_CCIT-NYC_Critiques_NYC_Announcement_of_Pilot_to_Respond_to_911_Mental_Health_Crisis_Calls.pdf. THE CITY, July 22, 2021: Ruth Lowenkron calls program “sleight of hand.” https://www.thecity.nyc/2021/7/22/22587983/nypd-cops-still-responding-to-most-911-mental-health-calls

18. Milbank Memorial Fund / KFF, Medicaid 21 states. https://www.milbank.org/quarterly/opinions/mobile-crisis-teams-and-medicaid-funding-advancing-behavioral-health-crisis-response-across-the-united-states/

19. KOSU, Oklahoma City 57% reduction, February 2026. https://www.kosu.org/health/2026-02-06/oklahoma-city-plans-to-expand-mental-health-crisis-response-with-state-opioid-settlement-money

20. Portland State University HRAC, PSR Year Two Evaluation, July 2023. Trust data, 57.9%→44.9%. https://www.pdx.edu/homelessness/sites/homelessness.web.wdt.pdx.edu/files/2023-07/HRAC%20Portland%20Street%20Response%20Year%20Two%20Evaluation%20Report_FINAL%20FOR%20WEBSITE.pdf

21. Matthew Bakko et al., Community Mental Health Journal, January 2025. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-024-01447-4