SEATTLE — Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan announced her proposal for a new emergency response team in the city’s ongoing efforts to reimagine the role of police in public safety.

Seattle is testing a big change in its 911 response. The city plans to add a team of civilian mental health professionals to its 911 center later this year.

SEATTLE — A team of mental health professionals will now be responding along with police and firefighters to calls of people who are in crisis in Seattle. The Community Assisted Response and ...

911 calls in Seattle could soon be answered by unarmed "crisis responders" instead of police officers through a new "alternate response team" spearheaded by a Democratic council member.

Seattle plans to expand its alternative 911 response teams citywide next year, building upon a pilot program that started about a year ago.

It took years of preparation but this week Seattle officials say 911 dispatchers will begin directing teams of mental health professionals to certain emergency calls, alongside police officers.

Existing 911 response systems simply do not meet the needs of the communities they serve. The 911 Diversion to Unarmed Personnel Act invests in jurisdictions to rethink its emergency response.

Some cities outside Seattle, such as Bellevue and Kent, have their own non-emergency response initiatives. The Health One team will cost $500,000 this year, Durkan said.

Just more than three months since the team was launched, and Seattle's crisis response team is seeing some early success in helping address mental illness.

The Seattle Police Department will be moving about 100 officers and supervisors to its 911 response team, a move officials say will help the department respond more quickly to 911 calls and form ...

SEATTLE (KOMO) — A team of mental health professionals will now be responding along with police and firefighters to calls of people who are in crisis in Seattle. The Community Assisted Response ...