Expanding Seattle’s Behavioral Health Response Team: A Step Towards Enhanced Public Safety

Seattle is set to expand 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, alongside the police and fire departments. Since October 2023, the city has been piloting the program in downtown Seattle, with six behavioral health specialists responding to calls alongside police officers. 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, mostly involving people who are lost or evicted, in distress, or who need clothes or shoes. 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 fit, then a civilian response should handle the situation. The goal of this program is not only to provide better care for those in need but also to free up police officers for other needs and reduce response times for emergency medical services.