Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab Announces 2024-2025 Alternative 911 Emergency Response Implementation Cohort
CAMBRIDGE, MA – The Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab (GPL) today announced the selection of the five governments participating in its 2024-25 Alternative 911 Emergency Response Implementation Cohort, an initiative designed to support city and county leaders in expanding and evaluating alternative responses to 911 calls.
The selected governments are: City of Los Angeles, CA; City of Madison/Dane County, WI; Minneapolis, MN; New Orleans, LA; and San Francisco, CA.
“Over the past four years, we’ve worked with more than 30 jurisdictions to design and implement alternative emergency response programs – and divert tens of thousands of calls from traditional first responders to unarmed teams. As existing programs increasingly focus on how to expand their reach, we’re now helping governments evaluate and expand their services,” said GPL Executive Director Gloria Gong. “We are excited to support this year’s Cohort members as they work to strengthen crisis response, measure program impact, and help more community members get the right response at the right time.”
In recent years, dozens of alternative emergency response programs have been established across the country to reduce unnecessary criminal justice system involvement and create more equitable outcomes for communities of color and others disproportionately impacted by the criminal justice system. These programs have successfully diverted thousands of 911 calls from traditional first responders – such as those related to mental health, substance use, and trespassing – to an array of alternative services. Those alternative services often include in-person, unarmed community responder teams, behavioral health professionals embedded in 911 call centers, other crisis hotlines, and more. After designing and piloting these programs, many jurisdictions are now seeking to expand the reach of community responder teams and evaluate the impacts of their services, including understanding gaps in who is served and the resources needed to better meet service recipients’ needs.
The GPL’s Alternative 911 Emergency Response Implementation Cohort provides jurisdictions with pro bono applied research support and technical assistance focused on alternative emergency response expansion and evaluation. This includes one-on-one coaching for government staff; access to adaptable implementation template materials such as data strategy plans and responder team training curricula; and GPL-facilitated Cohort calls with peer government agencies.
The GPL selected the 2024-25 Cohort from a highly competitive applicant pool representing 78 jurisdictions around the country. Selection criteria included the jurisdiction’s vision and commitment to equitably improving community safety and wellbeing; support from local leaders; collaboration across government departments; and commitment to increasing the reach of alternative emergency responses. Two governments – City of Los Angeles, CA and City of Madison/Dane County – are returning to the Cohort for a second year of support.
Since launching in September 2021, the GPL’s Alternative 911 Emergency Response Implementation Cohort has directly supported 21 Cohort members representing 32 jurisdictions in piloting or improving their alternative 911 emergency response programs. After joining the GPL’s Implementation Cohort, nine Cohort members launched their alternative 911 response programs, ten Cohort members expanded their programs, and two additional members are set to expand their programs. Additionally, nine Cohort members have collectively responded to more than 65,000 calls. The GPL also runs a community of practice composed of more than 340 representatives from 100 governments.
Statements of Support
“The support we’ve received from the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab has been essential to creating sound policies and protocols for the Unarmed Model of Crisis Response pilot, which deploys teams in three Los Angeles Police Department divisions 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Our second year in the cohort will be focused on strengthening the program to meet the needs of even more people in the communities it serves.” – Matthew Szabo, City Administrative Officer, City of Los Angeles
“We’re preparing to expand the Community Alternative Response Emergency Services (CARES) program beyond Madison’s borders, having already responded to more than 6,000 calls in Madison alone since its launch in 2021. As we bring this service to neighboring communities, continued support from Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab will help quantify our impact and draw actionable insights from data. This will help us better serve all communities that want to bring CARES into their portfolio of 911 services, ensuring we efficiently and properly connect those experiencing behavioral health crises with the services they need.” – Reuben Sanon, Deputy Mayor, City of Madison
“As we prepare to launch Behavioral Health Call Diversion services in Dane County, the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab’s continued technical assistance will help us draw upon implementation lessons from other jurisdictions across the country. Through the Behavioral Health Call Diversion program, behavioral health professionals embedded at our 911 call center will deescalate crises over the phone. This will complement services already being provided by our Community Alternative Response Emergency Services (CARES) program, and we will be able to assist even more people with the specific type of care they need.” – Luis Bixler, Director, Dane County Public Safety Communications
“I’m honored that the City of Minneapolis has been selected for this cohort. I believe our participation will help make a difference in the efficiency of our response and support our efforts to improve the safety of our city. Behavioral response tools and services delivered by community partner Canopy Roots provide direct support to people in crisis, allowing the city’s 911 staff to focus on imminent, life-threatening emergencies and alleviating pressure on the police and fire departments. We are working to build and deploy the right resources at the right time in the right situation, and the GPL’s assistance will help us on that path.” – Toddrick Barnette, Community Safety Commissioner, City of Minneapolis
“We are proud of what the New Orleans Mobile Crisis Intervention Unit has accomplished since launching in June 2023, including responding to more than 4,000 calls and launching a comprehensive data dashboard to track MCIU’s impact on the emergency response system. It’s an honor to be selected for this Cohort, and we look forward to exploring ways to strengthen our triage and more efficiently deploy public safety resources.” – LaToya Cantrell, Mayor, City of New Orleans
“Our participation in this Cohort will support efforts to strengthen our Homelessness Engagement Assistance Response Team (HEART), which has responded to an average of 1,200 calls each month since launching in May 2023. We look forward to working with the GPL to explore ways to significantly expand HEART’s services to ensure more people experiencing homelessness receive the care need.” – Mary Ellen Carroll, Executive Director, San Francisco Department of Emergency Management
“San Francisco’s Street Crisis Response Team (SCRT) has responded to more than 46,000 911 calls since launching in 2020, including those related to mental health crises and low acuity medical needs. This support from the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab will help strengthen our efforts to scale insights from our efforts related to data tracking and sustainable expansion to other alternative emergency response programs across the country.” – Sandra Tong, San Francisco Fire Chief
About the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab
The Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab (GPL), based in the School’s Taubman Center for State and Local Government, supports state and local governments across the country in designing and implementing solutions to pressing social problems. The GPL works closely with governments to develop and test service reforms – from how governments spend money through procurement to how they incorporate community voice in reforms – and thereby build more just and effective service systems. The GPL has completed more than 240 projects in 36 states, which have helped government leaders improve results for their residents. An important part of the GPL’s research model involves capturing the insights, tools, and practices gained through these hands-on projects to share with current and future government leaders through teaching and creation of public resources.
Contacts:
Gabi Remz
gabi_remz@hks.harvard.edu
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