Baltimore City Council ready to create agency handling lower-risk 911 calls

Baltimore lawmakers greenlit plans for a new department that would divert 911 calls away from police and into the hands of mental health professionals despite the fact that officials have no estimate for how much it will cost.

The City Council took two near-unanimous votes Monday to advance the proposal, setting it up for final passage early next month.

The plan calls for a newly-created Department of Neighborhood Safety to incorporate the city’s current crime diversion efforts, led by the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, and combine those with additional staff to respond to certain 911 calls.

Officials envision diverting non-life-threatening calls, such as welfare checks and nuisance reports, away from police. Calls that do not involve weapons and are deemed to be in a safe environment would be managed by a social worker and a peer specialist, an unlicensed person with relevant life experience. Teams would eventually work at all hours.

The proposal was introduced jointly by Mayor Brandon Scott and council President Zeke Cohen last month.

Councilman Mark Conway, the lone dissenting vote against the plan, said he was concerned that the bill had been rushed. Conway said he supported the intent of the legislation, but noted that the administration hadn’t produced a budget for the new office.

“I fear we’ll trip and fall and saddle the city with expectations we’re not fully prepared to meet,” Conway said.

The city’s finance department vetted the bill before it was heard in committee and noted that it could have a “potentially large fiscal impact.” The total expense will be determined by the department’s staffing level and the number and type of 911 calls it would be expected to handle, the city’s deputy director of finance said in a memo.

Scott’s staff have said they plan to launch the department with $15 million in restitution funds from settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors. The memo noted that those funds are currently expected to be depleted by 2032, “resulting in a large cliff whereby programs would either need to end immediately or transition to another funding source.”

Cohen said he wants to see the city hire a director for the office before assigning a final price tag.

“We have done some analyses based on Denver and Durham and some of the other existing systems, but I want to make sure before any number goes out publicly that the person who is going to be tasked with running this entire department is on board first,” he said.

Cohen and staff from the mayor’s office visited Durham to observe its 911 diversion program before introducing the bill. Durham diverts 5% of 911 calls from police. Baltimore currently diverts about 1.5%.

Conway’s colleagues took issue with his contention that the proposed department was under discussion for just six weeks. Numerous members said it was years in the making.

Councilwoman Odette Ramos pointed to past hearings held by the council to discuss crisis response. The council met several times last year after several city residents in the midst of mental health crises were killed by police.

“I don’t feel this has been rushed,” Ramos said. “This is the cap on all of the work that has been done.”

Council Vice President Sharon Green Middleton, the longest-serving member of the council, agreed.

“We’ve been trying to bring wrap-around services along for as long as I’ve been on the council,” she said.

“Our job is not to just have ideas and to put them out there,” Conway said in response. “Our job is also managing the budget.”

Cohen said that the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement out of the mayor’s budget and into its own department will give the council additional oversight of the office’s finances.

Letitia Dzirasa, Baltimore’s deputy mayor for equity, health and human services, said she expects to send a preliminary budget for the new office to the council in the next several weeks.

Like the introduction of the Group Violence Reduction Strategy, Baltimore’s current crime deterrent program, Dzirasa said she anticipates the city’s 911 diversion efforts to be phased in. Certain call types may be diverted first, and the city may also pilot the program in particular areas before others.