Mayor Bruce Harrell paid a visit to the Delridge Community Center on March 19 to announce that the city is entering into a Memorandum of Understanding to provide space at the Southwest Precinct for CARE team members. The City of Seattle's CARE Department, which stands for Community Assisted Response and Engagement, is a public safety initiative established in October 2023. It serves as a third branch of public safety alongside the Seattle Police Department and the Seattle Fire Department.

Key Functions:

• 911 Call Screening: CARE screens all 911 calls in Seattle and dispatches appropriate emergency services.

• Community Crisis Responders (CCR): These are behavioral health professionals who assist with non-violent mental health crisis calls. They work alongside police officers but are not law enforcement themselves.

• Dual Dispatch Model: CCRs are dispatched simultaneously with police to certain calls, but they operate independently in separate vehicles.

The department aims to provide tailored responses to behavioral health crises, reduce strain on police and fire services, and connect individuals to the right resources. It’s part of Seattle's broader effort to diversify emergency response and improve public safety.

The Seattle CARE department represents a new paradigm in public safety, a third City department which works in partnership with police and fire and is focused on helping people in need of behavioral health care. Seattle’s unique approach to diversified emergency response is designed to connect people in crisis with help and free up police resources to answer the calls where they’re needed most. Since launching in late 2023, CARE responders have assisted community-members in over 1700 events. Nearly half of those responses happened in just the first few months of 2025, demonstrating how much demand there is for this service as they add staff capacity and expand to more neighborhoods.

“The CARE department has proven their ability to deliver on Seattle’s long-standing need for a public safety system with more emergency response options, and I’m excited to expand this work citywide. Community crisis responders are doing outstanding work to help people in need and to free up police and fire resources for the calls where they’re needed most, and we will continue to build on the successes of this pilot,” said Mayor Harrell. “This kind of work takes time, but we are acting with urgency and the deliberate, evidence-based, approach we are taking here is essential to building a true third public safety department that lasts. We will continue to invest in and expand this program in Seattle and continue to advocate for commonsense reforms to support this work at the state level.”

CARE department Community Crisis Responder (CCR) teams are now organized into three zones, 1) Central, which matches the East and West Seattle Police Department (SPD) precincts; 2) North, which matches the North precinct; and 3) South, which matches the South and Southwest precincts. CCRs work in two-person teams, and when fully staffed each zone is planned to have two or three teams providing coverage. The teams operate from 12pm to 10pm, seven days a week.

“Expanding CARE responders to work citywide is a significant milestone in public safety. Our neighbors deserve to have the appropriate first response dispatched from Seattle 911, and every time we send CARE to a behavioral health emergency instead of law enforcement, we have given hours back to SPD to do the work that only they can do,” said CARE Chief Amy Barden. “I am grateful for Mayor Harrell’s unwavering conviction that we must center 911 data in public safety design, and by the data there is an overwhelming need for community responders all across the city. Our community members know this and demand and expect this kind of change and investment, and it is an honor to be a part of this evolution.”

The CARE department responder pilot program first launched in late 2023 with six CCRs focused on Downtown and the Chinatown-International District. In the summer of 2024, Mayor Harrell announced plans to expand the pilot citywide and seven days a week. CARE hired 10 staff in 2024 and extended service to Capitol Hill, Central Area, First Hill, Judkins Park, Madison Park, Montlake, and upper Pike/Pine neighborhoods. In 2025, CARE hired 11 staff and began deploying to North Seattle neighborhoods in January and South and Southwest Seattle in March. There are currently 24 responders and three supervisors.

“Expanding the CARE program is a crucial step towards advancing our public safety goals in Seattle,” said Councilmember Bob Kettle (District 7), who chairs the Public Safety Committee. “By optimizing our first responder resource options and creating better outcomes for our neighborhoods, this program, under the strong leadership of Chief Amy Barden, is making a real difference in our community."

CARE Community Crisis Responders (CCRs) are currently headquartered at the Seattle Municipal Tower and have additional office spaces at the 9-1-1 Communications Center in SPD West Precinct, at the SPD North Precinct North Annex Building, and at the University of Washington Police Department. In addition, CCRs have office space in SODO, from which they will dispatch to crisis calls in both South Seattle and West Seattle. The department is exploring additional office space in First Hill and a colocation agreement with the Southwest police precinct. 

“The CARE team is a force multiplier in the goal of promoting public safety throughout West Seattle. Our SW Precinct officer headcount is stretched thin—well below pre-COVID levels—as they manage significantly more gun violence and other crimes,” said Charlotte Starck, President Alki Community Council. “We need our police to focus on the most critical threats and violent offenders while we simultaneously support individuals facing addiction and the mental health crisis in our communities. From Alki to South Park, some may have hesitated to call 911. Now, they should not.”

The CARE department has also implemented two new partnerships that were announced in the summer of 2024. The University of Washington School of Social Work had their first master’s level intern do a practicum with CCRs to get real-world experience helping people in crisis. The Downtown Emergency Services Center (DESC) now allows CCRs to directly refer people in need to the Crisis Solutions Center without an officer needing to be present.

The CARE responder pilot has been partnering with Seattle University on evaluation since day one, tracking key metrics on the number and type of calls responders assist with, stakeholder buy-in, community support, and the experience of people receiving help. This evaluation is expected to be completed later in 2025.