Knoxville HEART stands for Healing EastTN Alternative Response Team (H-E-A-R-T). Our advocacy organization is made up of community members who believe that public safety should not rely on policing and that Knoxville should have a more strategic and compassionate response to mental health crises.

We are advocating for Knoxville to implement an alternative response team to respond to non-violent 911 calls about people in crisis. All of us have full time day jobs, some in behavioral healthcare, but we all believe that Knoxville’s approach to public safety should focus on harm reduction rather than police response and incarceration.

Our mission is to advocate for an alternative first response team in Knoxville to improve outcomes for people in crisis and reduce demand for police involvement. We want to increase the capacity of emergency response units in Knoxville and provide the community with access to care appropriate to their circumstance.

All people deserve compassionate and effective treatment during mental health crises. Alternative response teams are an evidence based public safety model that improves outcomes for those in crisis, saves the city and taxpayers money, and reduces demand for police involvement in non-violent encounters.

Please click here for more in-depth research on why Knoxville needs an alternative response team.

An alternative response team is composed of a behavioral health professional and a medic. These teams are dispatched by 911, just like police, fire, and ambulance services. They respond to a wide range of mental health-related crises, including conflict resolution, wellness checks, substance use, suicidal ideation, and more.

Alternative response teams can provide crisis care, de-escalation, basic first aid, transportation to the hospital and other locations, and community referrals to support people in need.

Alternative response teams respond to non-violent 911 calls, but occasionally there may be a reason for them to call for police backup. In 2019, CAHOOTS requested police backup only 150 times out of 24,000 calls. That’s 1 out of every 160 calls, or 0.625%. (source)

YES! Behavioral health professionals and medical professionals work with people experiencing crisis all the time without police present. These professionals are trained in how to quickly and safely de-escalate situations. When police respond to calls, many people might respond in fear and become more agitated because of previous negative experiences with police and/or fear of getting arrested. Removing police from non-violent crisis calls can prevent escalation.

Additionally, alternative response teams always have the option of calling for police backup if needed. In 2019, CAHOOTS (an alternative response team in Oregon) requested police backup only 150 times out of 24,000 calls. That’s 1 out of every 160 calls, or 0.625%. A pilot program in Denver called Denver STAR requested police backup zero times out of 700 calls.

It’s understandable to have concerns about the safety of an alternative response team. However, insisting that mental health professionals and medics need to be escorted by police to non-violent calls re-enforces the idea that people who are in a mental health crisis are inherently dangerous. In fact, people who are experiencing mental health crises are more likely to experience victimization and are 16 times more likely to be killed during a police encounter than the general public.

In 31 years of operation, no CAHOOTS employee has experienced a major injury while responding to a call. (source)

In a co-response model, a behavioral health professional is paired with a police officer, and they respond to calls together. In an alternative response model, a behavioral health professional is paired with a medic/nurse and they respond to calls without police.

Police presence has the possibility of escalating non-violent situations in a co-response model. Co-response models align behavioral health professionals with police officers, increasing distrust of mental health providers especially amongst communities that experience the most police brutality and violence.

While the co-response team program seems affordable, we have to remember that it is on top of the $80 million KPD budget. Police officers, police gear, and police cars are being used to run this program. Responding to a 911 call with a police officer is the most expensive option. The co-response model makes it even MORE expensive.

There is no reason for police to respond to mental health related non-violent 911 calls. Co-response is more expensive than alternative models and brings the added risk of escalating an otherwise non-violent situation through the presence of police.

Alternative response teams save money!

The Knoxville Police Department spends millions in overtime pay every year. Let’s lessen their burden by taking some of their 911 calls that they don’t need to respond to.

Alternative response is always less expensive than police response. For example, in Eugene, OR. CAHOOTS costs $86 per 911 response, while their police response costs $486.

CAHOOTS estimates it saves the city $8.5 million per year in public safety costs by reducing the need for police response. They estimate a savings of another $14 million in ambulance trips and ER costs.

What could the city of Knoxville do if we had another $2-4 million to re-invest into our communities? With an alternative response program, we would create healthier, safer communities with both the program itself and the money we could invest in other programs.

Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) is a training that attempts to equip police officers with tools to respond to mental health crises. Only approximately 20% of Knoxville’s police force have received the full 40-hour CIT training.

“We are not mental health professionals. At best, we can barely triage on a 40-hour certification.”- Knoxville’s Chief of Police, Eve Thomas

Studies show that Crisis Intervention Training has no significant effect on reducing arrest, use of force, and injury rates. Police presence can escalate crises, and people with serious mental health disorders are 16 times more likely than the general public to be killed during a police encounter.

Alternatively, training for alternative response models is much more comprehensive and specialized. CAHOOTS, an alternative response team in Eugene, OR, shows us the difference in experience and training.

CAHOOTS pairs a medic with a mental health crisis worker who has substantial training and experience in the mental health field. The training for CAHOOTS lasts 6 months to 1 year and includes 500 training hours in the field alongside up to 20 classroom hours. CAHOOTS employees rely on trauma-informed de-escalation and harm reduction techniques and expect their employees to respond to situations with compassion and empathy. They also often hire people with personal experiences in crisis situations and mental health. (source)

YES! Cities like Oakland, Sacramento, Albuquerque, Denver and Eugene, OR, currently use alternative response models. New cities are implementing programs all the time. This truly is the future of public safety.

Eugene’s response team, CAHOOTS, has operated in the city for over 30 years. "If the call turns out to be less about criminality and more about behavioral health, being able to do a warm handoff to CAHOOTS is really important," Eugene Police of Chief Chris Skinner said. "I think they prevent crime from happening. They're able to de-escalate or resolve those crises before people spiral out of control." (source)

Denver’s STAR program has had incredible success since their pilot program. In 2020, they launched a 6 month pilot program with 208k in grant money. It’s been so successful that the Denver City Council has allocated $3.8 million dollars for Denver STAR in the 2022 budget. (source)

In their small 6 month pilot program, Denver STAR responded to 748 calls. No calls required police backup, and no individuals were arrested. Denver’s Chief of Polic e Paul Pazen has been a huge supporter of the program and has said that he believes it “saves lives”.