A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Baltimore is about to completely overhaul how it responds to 911 calls. For calls that are not emergencies, the city wants to intervene before a situation develops into a crisis or crime. Scott Maucione at member station WYPR reports.
SCOTT MAUCIONE, BYLINE: Michala Williams is already doing this type of work for the city. When Baltimoreans are having mental health crises, she drives to wherever they are. On a recent afternoon, she pulled into a McDonald's parking lot. She was there to meet a 38-year-old woman who had called 911. She'd been thinking of harming herself. The woman requested anonymity from NPR so that she could freely discuss her mental health.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: I lost my job because of my health, and then I tried to get help for my back (ph). Just keep getting deeper and deeper in debt. Like, I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to pay rent 'cause I ain't got a job no more, how to put food on the table.
MAUCIONE: After she called, the dispatchers sent Williams instead of the police. When police respond, people in mental health crises can often end up in jail or in the hospital. By diverting the call to Williams, the idea's to offer treatment and services upfront before things deteriorate. The woman got into Williams' car, and they started talking. Within an hour, Williams set her up with a psychiatrist, a therapist and a case manager for public benefits.
MICHALA WILLIAMS: She's been through a lot of trauma, and no one is...
MAUCIONE: Yeah.
WILLIAMS: ...Going to deny that.
MAUCIONE: Right.
WILLIAMS: But I now have to take all of that and decide, OK. Here's Steps 1, 2 and 3. Because we got to find a little bit of sliver of something to give her some hope that there's help out here.
MAUCIONE: Williams is part of a mobile crisis team in Baltimore that's been operating for nearly a decade. Across the U.S., there are about 2,700 of these programs, according to the National Alliance on Mental Health. Now Baltimore wants to do even more to expand this service. It'll use $15 million from recent legal settlements it made with companies involved in the opioid epidemic. The investment means responders will be available around the clock, and they'll respond to more than just mental health calls. They can answer other 911 calls that don't need police - known as nuisance calls. Tahir Duckett's a community safety expert at Georgetown Law.
TAHIR DUCKETT: These are the call types that, in other jurisdictions, we found oftentimes contain a lot of calls that don't require a badge, a gun and handcuffs to resolve.
MAUCIONE: Baltimore has tens of thousands of nuisance calls every year. Think of an unhoused person who falls asleep in a restaurant or someone who seems confused and lost in a park, a pregnant woman who's fled domestic abuse but now needs shelter, clothes and baby supplies. In essence, this will be a fourth branch of first responders in addition to police, fire and EMS. Sara Whaley's the city's director of overdose response.
SARA WHALEY: Often now our response is maybe punitive. If we look at that as an opportunity to engage in the needs of that individual, what are the kind of wraparound services and support that can help?
MAUCIONE: There are only a handful of cities trying this kind of plan at this scale, including Albuquerque and Denver. In North Carolina, the city of Durham's been doing it for four years and has diverted 12,000 calls that previously would have gone to police. And Durham's 911 response time's sped up for all types of calls. Baltimore hopes for the same results after it ramps up the program later this year.
For NPR News, I'm Scott Maucione in Baltimore.
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MARTÍNEZ: This story comes from NPR's partnership with WYPR and KFF Health News.
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