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City briefs council on expansion and limits of unarmed alternative 911 responses
Summary
Fire Department, CARE, and SPD briefed the Public Safety Committee on alternative response programs: SFD's HealthONE expansion and overdose work, CARE's responder limits under a SPA contract and plans to double capacity, and SPD's CSO/CRT/POET teams. Council members pressed for clarity on labor, private-property exclusions, and criteria-based dispatch.
Seattle's public-safety leaders briefed the City Council Public Safety Committee on Feb. 24 about the city's multi-agency effort to expand unarmed or civilian-led responses to certain 911 calls.
Lisonbee Holcomb of the Mayor's office introduced the panel and said Mayor Katie Wilson supports sending "the right training and proficiencies to match the need." Fire Chief Harold Scoggins described the Mobile Integrated Health (MIH/HealthONE) program's evolution since 2019, its partnership with the Human Services Department, and operational growth. MIH staff said they currently run with roughly 11 HSD case managers and a pool of trained firefighters that will expand toward 50 next year; typical HealthONE deployments use two firefighters and one case manager and have an average on-scene time of about 42 minutes. Chief Scoggins highlighted sustained…
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