City Council approves expanded co‑response contract with Helen Ross McNabb after heated debate

Knoxville City Council on Tuesday approved a contract authorizing the mayor to execute an agreement with Helen Ross McNabb Center Inc. to continue and expand the Knoxville co‑response team program in an amount not to exceed $820,000 per year; the measure passed 8–1.

The vote came after more than two hours of public testimony and council debate in which supporters described reductions in arrests and emergency department use, while critics said the city lacked adequate public reporting and that expansion could preempt the alternative‑response task force’s work.

Supporters, including Webster Bailey, executive director of the Metro Drug Coalition, and Carrie Fair, a licensed clinical social worker, described the co‑response teams — paired KPD officers and behavioral health clinicians — as effective at keeping people out of jail and connecting them to services. Bailey told the council the teams had answered “over 4,000…