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Oakland to Send “Crisis Team” to Some 911 Calls Instead of Cops

Modeled after program in Oregon, non-violent 911 calls will have new special unit be first responders.
By - posted 6/29/2020 No Comment

Thanks to KRON4 for letting us know that Oakland is planning to launch a new mobile crisis response unit for Non-Violent 911 calls to help free up police officers to patrol their neighborhoods.

This new approach is modeled after Eugene, Oregon’s CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets). 

A CAHOOTS team consists of two people. One person is a medic or EMT, and one person who has experience in behavioral health counseling. CAHOOTS staffs are not the police. They’re not trained in policing. They don’t carry weapons. The mobile crisis response program operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Oakland city officials anticipate rolling out their version of the CAHOOTS model as early as fall 2020.