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Durham’s HEART program outlines crisis‑response model and countywide scaling steps
Summary
The City of Durham’s Community Safety Department presented a multi‑part crisis response model — crisis call diversion, community response, co‑response and care navigation — and commissioners discussed countywide expansion options while staff proposed an RFQ to assess 9‑1‑1 integration.
Ryan Smith, director of the City of Durham’s Community Safety Department, updated the Durham County Board of Commissioners on HEART — the city’s community safety program — describing its four components and data from the program’s first 2½ years.
Smith said HEART embeds licensed clinicians in the 9‑1‑1 call center for phone‑based crisis call diversion; operates community response teams (licensed social workers, peer specialists and EMTs) for in‑person responses to non‑violent behavioral health calls; fields co‑response units that pair clinicians with CIT‑trained officers for higher‑risk calls; and runs post‑call care navigation that follows up within 48–72 hours. He described HEART as a “four‑part” system that aims to connect people to appropriate care and reported that community response teams had answered more than 14,000 calls in roughly 2½ years.
Smith summarized key safety and operational metrics: community response units request emergent police backup on a very small fraction of calls (Smith cited about 0.4%); responder self‑reported safety scores are above 99% after calls; average response time for community teams is roughly 12 minutes on non‑lights‑and‑siren responses; and HEART has freed thousands of hours of police time by handling eligible calls. Smith also cited internal analyses showing HEART responses are associated with higher rates of voluntary transport to the Durham Recovery and Response Center and with lower arrest rates on eligible calls.
County officials discussed whether and how to expand HEART countywide. Dwayne Brinson, assistant county manager, said county staff and the sheriff’s office are preparing an RFQ to engage a consultant to evaluate how the county’s 9‑1‑1 system and the sheriff’s dispatch could integrate or coordinate with HEART. Sheriff Mike Birkhead said he is open to continued conversations and to review data. Commissioners asked for data on county call volumes and piloting options; Vice Chair Mike Lee and others urged a joint, data‑driven pilot involving Durham Emergency Communications Center, Durham Sheriff’s Office and HEART staff.
Smith repeatedly emphasized training, data and deliberative rollout. He said HEART’s design drew on RTI International analyses of 9‑1‑1 call types, comparison with other cities and months of local stakeholder engagement, and that external evaluations (RTI, Duke/Cook Center, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) are underway. He invited commissioners to visit the program’s dashboard and said the program aims to be transparent and evaluative as it scales.
