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Deputy city administrator outlines Spokane's new community-safety network, from 311 outreach to Spokane United 911 clinicians
Summary
Deputy City Administrator Maggie Yates told the Office of Police Ombudsman Commission the administration is building a layered community-safety system: expanded 311 outreach teams, a day navigation center, scattered-site shelters, and a phased Spokane United 911 center with federally funded 911 clinicians and civilian response teams.
Deputy City Administrator Maggie Yates briefed the commission on the Brown administration's community-safety strategy, saying the goal is to "have the right responder at the right time with the right resource to improve community safety outcomes." She described a mix of nonemergency outreach, shelter navigation and new emergency communications capacity the city has developed over the past year.
Yates said the city has set up a 311-based routing system that can dispatch outreach teams contracted through Catholic Charities. "These are two-person teams in each of our four precincts," she said, and the city is planning to double downtown coverage to increase near-real-time outreach for people experiencing mental distress, substance use or homelessness. "Outreach can respond to SPD and take the lead in cases where law enforcement might not be necessary," Yates said, adding that outreach teams also can call SPD if a situation escalates.
She described a recently converted day…
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