Unarmed response team waiting on police talks for setting role that doesn’t encroach on unions

The city is negotiating with police unions about how the department that was established to provide an alternative to police will answer emergency calls, the latest challenge in a delayed rollout of an unarmed response to 911 calls involving people in a mental health crisis and similar difficulties that don’t require officers. Disclosure of the talks, which began in February, came on May 7 at a City Council hearing on the department’s budget.

The Community Safety Department was first proposed four years ago in response to the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Originally it was part of the city’s emergency call center, but City Manager Yi-An Huang made it independent in January 2023 – after a Cambridge police officer fatally shot Arif Sayed Faisal while the 20-year-old Bangladeshi immigrant was holding a large knife in the midst of a psychiatric crisis – to ensure it was independent from the police department.

Now, the union negotiations raise the possibility that police will influence how and when the department responds to emergency calls. Huang recognized the situation at the budget hearing, recalling that “we wanted to stand this up as a department separated, but there is a connection to our obligation to respond to 911 calls to coordinate with the police department and have a collaborative relationship.”

His spokesperson, Jeremy Warnick, said: “Involving the unions in the rollout of the new department has provided opportunities to address any questions or concerns the responses to different call types may have with respect to [police officers’] work.” Warnick said that police, fire and dispatch unions “have all been engaged with city administration since the early stages of the Community Safety Department. Focused discussions with the police unions began in February 2024 as policies and protocols were drafted.”

A spokesperson for the Cambridge Police Patrol Officers Association couldn’t immediately respond to questions about the negotiations.

Avoiding union conflicts

While the talks continue, the department won’t answer calls that a union member would respond to, Community Safety Department head Liz Speakman said at the hearing. “We are hopeful to start as soon as possible … We’re going to start with calls that don’t impact any of the unions.”

It’s not clear what calls would remain. A list of the types of calls the new department’s Community Assistance Response and Engagement team would answer included welfare checks for which no crime is suspected; drinking in public; various mental health calls, including for a suicidal person; someone who feels ill; and notifying a person that a relative has died – most of them calls a police officer would take.

The department hired eight people for its Care team last fall, but fired three in January while they were in their probationary period. Speakman said then that the remaining five members remained on track to start answering 911 calls by the end of March and the department would keep to its original schedule, which included some evening hours. In February, it eliminated the night-time hours. And now it has no firm date to start answering calls except for committing to a “spring” rollout.

Councillor Patty Nolan pressed Speakman for “a timeline,” saying: “The reason for this is really to be able to follow the model of so many of the other exemplary organizations across the country and actually respond to those calls with the Care team.” Speakman replied that because of the negotiations, “unfortunately, that means we don’t have a date that we’re able to start, but we feel like the negotiations have been promising. And we’re excited to be able to continue those and make sure that we can get this launched as soon as possible.”

Changes coming slowly

Huang said getting the department running had been more complex than expected. “Ultimately, I do think that there have been various parts that have been unanticipated that we’ve had to work through,” he said. “We are really close. And I know we keep saying that. But we are really close. We’re excited about the work this department is doing and looking forward to positive updates in the future.”

Meanwhile the city has advertised the three unfilled positions, including one social worker. And since February the Care team has been answering requests from residents to pick up used drug needles as well as reaching out to community groups and helping them serve meals and provide other services. The fire department had been doing the needle pickups, and Warnick said there were talks with the firefighters union before the Care team took over the job.

The city is also lagging on other fronts involving changing police. The police department has selected a vendor to provide body-worn cameras but is still negotiating their use with police unions, police commissioner Christine Elow told city councillors.

Heart contracting

And a resident-organized alternative to police, the Holistic Emergency Assistance Response Team, still has not received a city contract to provide services as councillors have twice requested. City officials have said Heart’s contract proposal didn’t meet city requirements, while Heart has asserted it couldn’t get clear directions about how to meet the requirements. The organization received $300,000 from the city in pandemic aid funds and has raised more than $1 million in donations and other grants, but hasn’t established a phone number and doesn’t respond to emergency requests. Heart is also facing the loss of its space because the Democracy Center at 45 Mount Auburn St. will stop renting to community and activist groups in July.

At the Tuesday budget hearing, Speakman said her department had been “in continuing conversations with Heart” and each party agreed “there’s enough work for our department and for their team.” She said the department is preparing two types of requests for proposals from community organizations to distribute grants that would further the department’s mission: one for organizations registered as nonprofits in their own name and the other for groups that collect grants and donations through a “fiscal sponsor” that is a nonprofit.

Speakman said she has “promised Heart that I will email them as soon as [the document] gets released. They won’t be the last to know, and we’re eager to see what they put together for us.”

Originally the department received $1.5 million to give out to community groups, but the total has shrunk. It awarded one grant for $250,000 in this fiscal year that ends June 30. The money went to My Brother’s Keeper, the local branch of a national group started by former President Barack Obama to help boys and young men of color after the killing of Trayvon Martin. My Brother’s Keeper offered programs last summer and fall in areas such as parenting and postsecondary school planning; police provided some of the staffing.

Warnick said the department plans to distribute another $600,000 in the 2025 fiscal year.

Social worker for police too

While response from the Care team is delayed, the police department intends to try sending a social worker with officers to some calls “involving our most vulnerable communities,” Elow told councillors. Police department spokesperson Robert Goulston said the department, which last fall opposed a co-response model, is seeking a grant from the state Department of Mental Health for the program.

The Care team also includes a social worker and will have two when it’s fully staffed, raising the question of whether police are expanding into Community Safety Department territory. Goulston said the unarmed Care team won’t answer mental health calls if they involve a crime or “physical safety.”

“In contrast, the [police department] co-response unit can respond to all calls that normally go to CPD patrol as the officer will always assess scene safety before the co-response clinician engages.” Goulston said.

To be ntegrated, not overlap

He said that when the police co-response system is in place, Cambridge “will be one of the first cities to have an integrated model of behavioral health response in which a co-responder is integrated into a public safety system that also has clinicians in the 911 call center and in the CPD Clinical Support Unit.”

The social worker riding with police handles the situation in the field, while the clinician in the emergency call center can contact an emergency room and the police department’s existing social workers who help troubled people and their families get aid at home and in their neighborhoods can “help get stabilization supports in place,” Goulston said.

 The purpose of the program is “to reduce arrests related to mental health calls and to reduce unnecessary trips to the ER for mental health calls that can be resolved on scene,” Goulston said.

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