Selecting 911 Calls for Alternative Emergency Response

One of the first decisions a local government implementing an alternative 911 response system must make is choosing which types of 911 calls to divert. Through our Alternative 911 Emergency Response Implementation Cohort, the Government Performance Lab assisted the City of Long Beach with this difficult and important decision. Read this case study to learn the five steps the City of Long Beach took to cross this initial hurdle in its efforts to provide an alternative, unarmed emergency resource for its residents:

1. Identifying potential call scenarios that are good candidates for alternative response and matching them to dispatch codes
2. Collecting and analyzing data on volume, scenario, and outcome by call code
3. Developing safety criteria to exclude certain calls from alternative response
4. Categorizing call codes by how frequently they end in contact with the criminal justice system to recommend call categories suitable for alternative response
5. Engaging with community members for feedback