Have I mentioned lately that I’m pretty excited about the future of public safety? 

Over the last year, I had the opportunity to participate in the Harvard Government Performance Lab (GPL) Alternative 911 Emergency Response Cohort along with other jurisdictions in the U.S. that are launching or expanding unarmed responder programs staffed with professionals trained to respond to mental and behavioral health calls and other 911 calls that don’t need a gun, firetruck, or ambulance. As I’ve built relationships with colleagues in other cities, I’ve become convinced that we are on the precipice of a monumental change in how we conceive of public safety in the United States. It’s an exciting time to be a public safety professional.

As I’ve learned about the exciting work of other jurisdictions nationwide, I’ve seen that there are three cities really leading the way as the gold standard of what a new first responder system can look like: Albuquerque, New Mexico; Durham, North Carolina; and Seattle, Washington. Each of these cities have taken the bold step to establish co-equal public safety departments for unarmed community responder programs, at the same level of police, fire, and emergency medical services. Albuquerque Community Safety, Durham Holistic Empathetic Assistance Response Team (HEART), and Seattle Community Assisted Response and Engagement (CARE) are pioneering a new approach to public safety that I believe will be the norm in every major U.S. city within 20 years. 

As such, I was pretty starstruck when I had the opportunity to meet the inestimable Chief Amy Smith in person in Seattle last weekend. I met Chief Smith virtually last fall, and I reached out to her again when I decided to run for City Council, knowing that Amy also happens to be from Portland. She was incredibly excited about my candidacy and invited me up to Seattle to visit CARE in person.

The thing about Seattle that’s interesting is that they’ve gone all-in on the idea that the city needs a new type of first responder, that this responder capacity is just as important as police officers and firefighters (with different roles and specialties), and that it should have leadership at the same level as the police and fire chiefs. And they chose the perfect person to lead Seattle into this new public safety future. At the same time, the actual CARE responder program is relatively new, having launched less than a year ago (2 years after Portland Street Response). Seattle is leading the way in leadership commitment and investment, and developing the programming and responder capacity in real time. 

I also got to do a sit-along in the 911 center and a ridealong with the CARE responder team while in Seattle. What an incredible group of committed and caring individuals. It’s clear that there is plenty of work for the CARE team to do in Seattle, as the need for unarmed skilled compassionate response to people with behavioral health needs is vast. As the team grows and develops, they will be able to take on more and more of the work to respond to this need. I know Chief Smith will be leading them in the right direction.

In Portland, we actually have a more developed and established program in Portland Street Response - but have struggled to get the leadership commitment and investment that Seattle has demonstrated. I hope we can learn from Seattle’s approach, and follow the lead of gold standard cities like Albuquerque and Durham. Commissioner Gonzalez has said that creation of a co-equal branch for PSR sounds like “police abolitionist play.” But all he has to do is look to our sister city to the north, and talk to Chief Smith, to see that this is decidedly untrue. It is totally possible to establish a co-equal public safety branch without taking away from the importance of our police bureau. This is not a threat, it is the future. It is innovative, and it is an essential piece of our community’s safety. 

Did you know that 50 years ago, we didn’t have ambulance services or paramedics in the United States? The mode of transportation and the profession literally did not exist. It was people living in Black neighborhoods in Pittsburgh who invented it, because they were not well served by police when they had a medical emergency. You can hear the whole incredible story on this 99% Invisible podcast episode! Back then, police worried that these emerging emergency medical services were a threat to their existence, too. But we know now that wasn’t the case, and can you imagine living in a city where you couldn’t dial 911 and get an ambulance if a family member were having a heart attack? 

Public safety and our first responder system are always changing as we adapt to the changing needs of our community, and listen to what underserved communities need, especially those who have been harmed by the traditional system. In the 1970s, we developed emergency medical services; now in the 2020s, we are developing a new additional unarmed first responder capacity to respond to mental and behavioral health calls. It’s an exciting time! As a member of Portland’s City Council, I will ensure that we are part of the group of gold standard cities leading the way on this new horizon for public safety in the U.S. Let’s move our Rose City’s first responder system forward together!