How did you develop these pilot plans? Who did DCSD work with to plan?

Over the past 9 months, DCSD has lead a thorough, careful planning process that was community-informed, highly collaborative, data driven and evidenced based.

Community-Informed: We have been conducting in-person resident interviews, focus groups and listening sessions. We also held two bilingual virtual town halls with Durham Community Safety and Wellness Task Force. We have directly engaged over 400 residents to date. You can view past town halls and read about what we learned from our community engagements on our website

Highly-Collaborative: We formed a multi-agency planning team with our public safety partners (Emergency Medical Services, Durham Police Department, Department of Emergency Communications Center [911], Durham Fire Department), Alliance Health, Criminal Justice Resource Center, UNC School of Social Work, Housing for New Hope, Research Triangle Institute (RTI), & Recovery Innovations to plan pilots. We also conducted multiple ride-alongs with Durham police officers & interviews with peer support specialists, community health workers, mental health professionals, and met with local community organizations to help plan.

Data-driven: We analyzed 3 years of Durham 911 calls to better understand which calls are appropriate for our pilots. We also conducted a use-of-force analysis and built data tools that allow us to analyze calls by volume, frequency, location, risk level, and response time.

Evidence-based: We’ve taken time to learn from many US cities leading similar work, including Albuquerque NM, Austin TX, Atlanta GA, Charleston SC, Denver CO, Greensboro NC, Houston TX, Philadelphia PA, Portland OR, & San Francisco CA, among others. We’re also part of a national cohort of five U.S. cities launching pilots this year. You can see a few of those cities' presentations to Durham residents at our October 2021 virtual town hall. 

Show All Answers

1. Why did the City start with “pilots”?
2. What is Crisis Call Diversion (CCD)?
3. What is a Community Response Team (CRT)?
4. What is Co-Response (CoR)?
5. What is a Care Navigator (CN)?
6. Where do these HEART units operate?
7. Why don’t all units operate citywide? Will they ever?
8. How did you select the service area and why use police beats?
9. What are the hours of operation for each pilot?
10. Why don’t units operate 24/7? Will they ever?
11. How did you select the hours of operation?
12. Will these new responses slow down 9-1-1 in sending a response as call takers have to learn about the new responses?
13. How are you going to keep unarmed responders safe?
14. Can I request one of these responses?
15. Is there a number other than 9-1-1 to request these services?
16. Why do I have to go through 9-1-1 to get an unarmed response?
17. What kinds of personnel are staffing these units, and what kinds of training have they had prior to starting with DCSD?
18. What kinds of additional training will DCSD staff have prior to responding to calls for service?
19. What kinds of calls for service are eligible for HEART and how did you select them?
20. How are these programs being evaluated?
21. How can I follow the progress of the HEART program?
22. How did you develop these pilot plans? Who did DCSD work with to plan?
23. Why did the City create the Community Safety Department?