COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin hopes by the time the group returns from summer recess in September, it will be ready to pilot an emergency response program that doesn’t include police.
September will mark over a year and a half since Hardin first announced funding for a nonpolice response program pilot for “nonviolent, low-acuity” calls for service, including mental health crises. At the end of April, the city quietly released its request for proposal (RFP) for ideas from experts on how to spend that funding – and potentially scale up the pilot into a full service.
Unlike the city’s existing alternative crisis response programs, which pair social workers and medical providers with officers or dispatchers, the new unit would be the city’s first public safety program without police. The program would mirror similar services in cities across the country, some of which have been operating for decades.