New numbers show the Raleigh police department spent 35,000 hours, roughly a quarter of its time, responding to mental health – or other non-violent calls over a 3-year period.

For now, the city is looking into how a new team could assist the department, and the people who need help.

Right now, when you call 911 to report someone in a mental health crisis, a Raleigh police officer responds.

An alternative crisis response team would answer that call instead.

Social justice activist Kerwin Pittman is part of the Raleigh HEART coalition.

“The city has really been responding to these issues wrong for a long time, and the city has been in a crisis for a long time,” Pittman said.

They’re urging the city to form a new team of first responders – similar to Durham’s HEART program.

Unarmed mental health counselors and social workers respond to certain 911 calls instead of police officers.

“A lot of time law enforcement are not trained and equipped to handle these particular situations that mental health clinicians should be handling quite frankly. So, why not put the right people in the right places?” Pittman said.

The coalition put together this proposal for the city to create the alternative response unit.

It says “diversion of these types of nonviolent calls could save RPD up to 40% of the time it currently spends on these types of calls.”

Megan Moore studies these alternative response teams at Duke Law’s Wilson Center for Science and Justice.

“It is a huge resource drain, because it’s not actually getting the outcome we all want which is people living fuller lives and reduced crime,” Moore said.

“People are arrested, sent to jail, they don’t receive any mental health treatment in jail, and then they’re released and the cycle begins again. So, alternative crisis response is a way of breaking that cycle and connecting people to the services they need,” Moore said.

Raleigh Police already has its ACORNS unit to help people who are experiencing a mental health crisis.

But that is still initiated by a police officer who responds to a 911 call.

“We know we’ve seen more instances of mental health issues in our city, and we’re looking at ways we can address that,” Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said. “How can we get people who need help, help?”

Raleigh city council will discuss what this new alternative response unit could look like during a meeting Tuesday. Baldwin said the city would need to do its own study and figure out how much it would cost to be funded in next year’s budget.

The community response team in Durham has responded to more than 3,200 calls since the HEART program started there in June of 2022.