Seattle aims to increase the number of mental health specialists responding to 911 calls

Seattle is expanding its program that sends behavioral health specialists to some 911 calls. Mayor Bruce Harrell’s “vision was to set up and legislate a third public safety department,” said Amy Smith, who oversees the program: police, the fire department, and her team. Since October 2023, the city has been piloting the program in downtown Seattle. The six behavioral health specialists respond to calls alongside police officers and have joined in on 539 calls. Now, the city plans to put a bigger team in place to respond citywide by the end of 2024. The goal is to add 18 more responders, and three more supervisors. The program will also expand to operate daily, from noon to 10 p.m.

The behavioral health team currently responds to about a dozen calls each week. Most of those calls involve people who are lost or evicted, in distress, or who need clothes or shoes. Police officers also come to the scene, but the behavioral health team can stay longer — sometimes for hours — which frees up officers for other needs. Smith said she would like her team to respond to a lot more than a dozen calls per week. “We get almost 900,000 calls for service (to 911),” Smith said. “If you just looked at the calls … about 40-50% of the time, they just don’t require fire or police.” The city’s agreement with the police union limits how many calls the behavioral health team gets, a point that Mayor Harrell plans to revisit during upcoming union negotiations.

Smith said what she hopes for is a simple system that determines if a call requires a gun and a badge, medical transport, or is a fire. If neither of these criteria fits, then a civilian response should handle the situation.