How are community responder teams performing across the country?
Local governments are rethinking who responds when someone dials 911 for mental health, behavioral health, or quality-of-life concerns. Establishing community responder teams (CRTs) is one strategy to connect residents to the right services at the right time. In this report, the GPL analyzed 2024 data from nine unarmed CRTs operating across the country, working directly with each jurisdiction to build a unique dataset and conduct original analysis.
Using internal data gathered from the programs, this report providers the first cross-program snapshot. The report also presents early evidence and practical insights to support replication, scaling, and evaluation. Rather than requiring readers to piece together information from individual initiatives, it synthesizes comparable data across multiple CRTs to show how these programs were designed and how they perform.
The report also highlights:
- How CRTs were staffed
- When and where they operated
- What types of incidents they respond to (e.g., primarily mental health and welfare checks)
- What happened after they arrived at a scene