Efforts to Reimagine: The Pilots

The Office of Performance and Innovation (OPI) is responsible for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of city services.

At the July 24, 2020 City Council meeting the OPI was directed to lead an enterprise-wide effort to support the City’s goal to transform and improve public safety for all residents and visitors. The effort was to include:

• reallocating resources as part of the budget revision process
• supporting a seamless integration and transition to a new public safety model

The OPI, in collaboration with the appropriate City departments and divisions, was  directed to continue its work to implement recommendations identified by the 911/MPD Work Group. The work includes plans to:

• transition theft report-only calls and response to 311
• develop alternative response options for Emotionally Disturbed Persons (EDP) 911 calls 
• reassign report-only 911 calls (i.e. theft, damage, non-evidence related receive information calls) to alternative responders

OPI  will take a lead in managing the below four pilots with a November 2021 goal for final recommendations for the 2022 budget.

MH1 – Mobile Mental Health Response Teams

MH2 – Train 911 Dispatch in Assessing Mental Health Calls

MH3 – Embed Mental Health Professionals into 911

R4 Pilot – Train non-police City staff to take theft and property damage reports & collect evidence

OPI will take a support role as departments implement:

• R1 – Direct property damage report-only & parking problem calls to 311
• R3 – Conduct an awareness campaign about reporting options via 311 and online
• RS Pilot – Transfer all parking related call responses to Traffic Control
• MH4 Pilot – Community De-Escalation Training

To learn more about these pilots see Efforts to Reform: 911