Some 911 calls in Charlotte will soon be diverted from police
Charlotte will see wider use of a civilian response team, sending trained mental health professionals — instead of police — to some 911 calls.
The initiative, which the city refers to as its “CARES Team”— Civilian Assistance: Response Engage, Support — is part of the city’s efforts to address recommendations from two years ago from SAFE Charlotte.
City Council on Tuesday, May 31, unanimously approved a $3.2 billion budget that included the CARES Team program.
Charlotte’s program will be modeled after similar civilian-led response teams in other cities, including Denver and Portland, Oregon.
Teams of two individuals will be sent out to respond to low-risk mental health, substance abuse, and homelessness calls for service, according to the proposal from the city manager’s office. The city plans to launch its first pilot program of teams this summer, in a limited geographic area.
“The CARES Team will stand out from typical public safety agencies within the city with different branding, different uniforms, and dedicated highly-visible fully electric vans for response teams,” according to the original budget proposal.
Charlotte was one of three cities awarded $330,000 by the state, to begin administrative operations for the team.
The money for this team was first approved last year, and the FY2022 budget included: $1.2 million to launch the CARES team, $1 million to continue the SAFE Charlotte Grant initiative and $739,000 to double the number of Community Policing Crisis Response Teams. According to the budget proposal for this year, that money also will be used as well as the state funding.
The 2023 fiscal year begins July 1, 2022.
SAFE Charlotte Recommendations
SAFE Charlotte is a plan that was adopted by the city in October 2020. It is a partnership between United Way of Central Carolinas, the City of Charlotte that awards grants to grassroots organizations in an effort to curb violence.
The RAND Corporation gave several recommendations to the city on how best to implement ideas through SAFE Charlotte.
Through the corporation’s research, they found that the most frequent routine-priority call types were noise complaints, traffic accidents and infractions, and thefts from vehicles. And these calls accounted for 10 to 20% of calls at all hours of the day.
About 7% of all 911 calls RAND analyzed from 2015-2020 had to do with mental health, homelessness and substance abuse. The calls flagged for mental health were overwhelmingly welfare checks, and most calls regarding substance abuse had to do with overdoses.
If the trial run is successful, the CARES teams would take on these calls for service, instead of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
This story was originally published May 24, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
