Public Safety & Crisis Response
Safety is the baseline every other conversation depends on. People need to feel comfortable walking home, opening a business, or taking their kids to the park. At the same time, a large share of the calls our emergency services absorb are behavioral-health, substance-use, or homelessness related — situations that need a different kind of response, coordinated with, not replacing, police and fire.
Where I stand
I want a city where officers are available for the emergencies only they can handle, and where a person in a mental-health or substance crisis meets someone trained and experienced enough to actually de-escalate it. That means investing in both: staffed, responsive public safety and a serious crisis-response capability with real accountability and measurable outcomes.
What I'd focus on
- Reliable response times across every neighborhood, not just the commercial core
- A dedicated response option for appropriate nonviolent behavioral-health and substance-use calls
- Coordination protocols so crisis teams and public-safety agencies work together, not around each other
- Public, plain-language reporting on response times and outcomes
// ideas
Related ideas and proposals
// resident input
Your take on Public Safety
You live it day to day. Tell me what this issue looks like where you are — what's broken, what's working, and what you'd change.