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County, city officials weigh expanding HEART crisis response; RFQ issued for assessment
Summary
Officials discussed expanding Durham’s HEART crisis-response program countywide but raised call-routing and training concerns for county 911. City staff cited RTI survey data and the Board directed issuance of an RFQ for a professional assessment and requested 911 call and response-time data for county areas.
Durham County commissioners on Monday reviewed the HEART crisis-response framework and discussed steps for possible countywide expansion.
Ryan Smith, director of the City of Durham Community Safety Department, described HEART’s model and cited an RTI survey showing 37% of officers said HEART would be helpful and that the figure rose to 67% within the program’s first year. Smith said the primary operational challenge for countywide expansion is routing calls correctly through telecommunicators: calls for health or fire can use HEART, but calls routed for law enforcement are transferred to the Sheriff’s call center, which has not been trained on HEART protocols.
Sheriff Clarence Birkhead said his office supports public safety and acknowledged there are training and routing gaps that would need to be addressed for countywide replication. Assistant County Manager Dwane Brinson told the Board staff would publish a request for qualifications (RFQ) for a professional assessment of HEART needs; County Manager Hager emphasized the importance of data analysis prior to committing to expansion.
The Board directed staff to provide county 911 call data and to produce data comparing response times between City and outer-county limits. No formal vote to expand HEART occurred; the session established a process for assessment and data collection to inform future decisions.
