On a chilly morning in January, a call came into Atlanta’s 911 center.
An unhoused man was lying on the ground near an intersection. The caller didn’t report a crime. No weapon was involved. No one appeared to be in immediate danger. He might have been intoxicated. Or maybe just asleep, exhausted after another night spent outdoors.
The caller asked dispatchers if someone could check on him.
Under Atlanta’s current system, they sent a police officer.
Over my career in law enforcement, I responded to countless calls like this one. I always did my best with the tools and training I had. But looking back, it’s fair to ask whether a police officer was really the best response.
What if the man was struggling with mental illness, or needed shelter, addiction treatment or help accessing basic services?
Most police officers are not trained to address those situations. And most of us did not join the profession with them in mind.
Yet Atlanta officers are dispatched to these kinds of low-risk calls every day. According to an analysis of 911 call data by Law Enforcement Action Partnership, Atlanta police respond to over 30,000 low-risk calls per year that are handled in other cities by unarmed responder teams — including 24,000 trespassing or “unwanted persons” calls, more than 6,400 welfare checks, and hundreds more involving intoxication and other minor issues.
Let police do policing and leave other duties to trained civilians
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Nobody benefits from this system. Police officers spend valuable time responding to problems we are not best suited to handle, while people in crisis are less likely to receive the specialized help they need.
Cities across the country are increasingly demonstrating there is a better way.
Over the past several years, jurisdictions large and small have begun expanding the types of response services available in their communities. Instead of automatically dispatching police to every low-level, nonviolent call for service, they are sending trained civilian teams to respond to issues involving mental health crises, homelessness, substance use, welfare checks and other quality-of-life concerns.
Today, more than 90 community responder programs operate across the country, according to LEAP. Together, they handle more than 200,000 calls annually that would otherwise be routed to law enforcement, with no reported serious injuries or fatalities among program staff.
Cities from New Orleans to Albuquerque, Houston and Durham have demonstrated that these programs work effectively, with responders reporting feeling safe on around 99% of calls and only very rarely calling for police backup. Atlanta’s Police Alternatives & Diversions program has spent years handling thousands of similar low-level calls through the city’s 311 line.
As a law enforcement professional, I have seen the impact these programs have for both police and the communities we serve.
For years, departments across the country have struggled to recruit and retain officers. At the same time, police have become the default response to countless social challenges better addressed by other specialists. Asking officers to serve as crisis counselors, housing navigators and addiction specialists is neither fair to police nor effective for the public.
Not every call for help requires a gun or a badge
Community responder programs tackle that problem by allowing officers to focus on the work that truly requires a police presence. Every welfare check handled by a civilian team frees up an officer to respond to a more pressing public safety concern. Every homelessness-related call diverted from police is time they can spend investigating offenses, building community relationships or addressing serious crime.
That’s why so many officers view these programs not as a threat to policing, but as a force multiplier that makes police more effective.
Atlanta’s PAD has already developed much of the infrastructure needed to expand community response. And 911 call-takers are already forwarding certain calls to PAD. Still, the organization’s responders only received nearly 1,800 calls in 2025, mostly through 311. That’s far short of the roughly 30,000 that could be taken off the plate of police.
The challenge is not proving that community responders can handle 911 calls but giving them the financial support and integration to operate at scale. Local leaders in other cities have made a deliberate decision to invest in these programs, allowing them to hire more teams and work with 911 center leadership to develop simple and effective processes for identifying and dispatching calls to responders.
Atlanta has the opportunity to do the same.
Police will always play a vital role in public safety. But not every call requires a gun and a badge. When someone calls 911 because an unhoused man is lying on a sidewalk, they are not asking for law enforcement. They are asking for help.
The smartest public safety systems recognize the difference and send the right response. Atlanta should too.
Stephen Bradley is a former police officer and deputy sheriff in the state of Georgia. Before leaving law enforcement, he was a sergeant for a large metro Atlanta sheriff’s office, where he acted as a patrol supervisor.
Send letters to the editor of 250 words or fewer with your name, city or town and contact information to letters@ajc.com.
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
