In a move that could redefine Seattle’s emergency response system, Councilwoman Lisa Herbold announced the initiation of a pilot program. This program aims to dispatch unarmed “crisis responders” for specific 911 calls, providing an alternative to the traditional police response.
Councilwoman Herbold shared the progress, stating, “I’m really, really happy to report that the city is hiring for the six positions for its first pilot alternate response team.”
“It’s going to be a way for 911 operators to dispatch calls to somebody other than police, somebody other than fire, a crisis responder who is unarmed,” she continued.
Ensuring that the police remain informed, she elaborated, “The police department will be aware of the dispatch. They may attend, they may stage nearby, or they just may have situational awareness. Each call is going to be different.”
This new initiative, labeled the 911 Dual Dispatch/Alternate Crisis Response program, recently secured funding of $1.6 million through the midyear supplemental budget.
Herbold’s website provides insight into the function of this approach: “The new dual dispatch program will send mental health professionals as the first responders to 911 calls involving people in behavioral health crises. Those mental health professionals will have police backup available to them, but SPD officers would only approach if needed.”
The program seeks to balance public safety concerns and to allocate police resources effectively, where their unique skills are most required.
Councilwoman Herbold has been at the forefront of Seattle’s policing debates. In August 2020, she championed a plan that resulted in the reduction of 100 officers from the city’s police force of 1,400 and a $3 million cut from the police’s overall $400 million budget.
Additionally, around the same period, she endorsed legislation advocating leniency for defendants grappling with substance abuse, mental disorders, or living in poverty.
Seattle’s “Defund the Police” supported by the Councilwoman is hardly successful.
As reported by the National Review last week, “the city has seen a 24 percent jump in homicides last year alongside a 30 percent spike in vehicle thefts.”
“During the summer riots of 2020, stretches of downtown Seattle were overtaken by Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists. The area was deemed off-limits to cops and named the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, otherwise known as CHAZ,” the article stated.
“In 2022, amid calls to ‘Defund the Police,’ the size of the local police department roster hit a decades-low as anti-law enforcement rhetoric pushed many into early retirement,” the article continued.
Interestingly, Councilwoman Herbold has previously sought police intervention herself. In December 2020, following an incident where a man allegedly threw a rock through her living room window, she called the police. Ironically the very legislation she supported could have seen such an offender potentially avoid criminal charges, under certain circumstances.
It remains to be seen if this new program will be effective or just endanger the lives of the those six new hires and put more pressure on an already strapped police department.
