An article titled The People Responding to 911 Calls Instead of Police presents several people currently working as non-police alternatives to community crisis responses. The article tells real stories of people now involved in this work.
The article notes that a high proportion of calls that come in through 911 don’t actually demand a police response, and law enforcement is often not trained to respond safely and effectively to behavioral health–related calls. In fact, police responses can often worsen these situations. In many cases, the mere presence of armed, uniformed officers causes distress.