Good afternoon, everyone, and uh welcome to our uh Columbus City Council's hearing on alternative crisis and the report that our uh contractors did for the City of Columbus is uh we're grateful to be here.

This is actually a joint hearing of uh the rules committee, public safety, as well as Health and Human Service and Equity Committee as well.

And so I want to begin by recognize the many people who made this moment possible from our council team, uh city staff from public health and public safety, Mr.

Cochrane, Director Cochrane, thank you so much.

Uh Ms.

Anita, thank you so much.

Um, so many community advocates, national partners from Mission Critical Partners, and the residents who have been advocating for years and years for this topic, with both their knowledge uh and their lived experience.

Today is an important milestone along that journey.

Mission Critical Partners has now released its report, and council members are here to learn from its findings.

Findings that challenge us to think differently about the city's current programs for alternative crisis response and to dig a little deeper into making this response an integrated part of our city's infrastructure.

As we all know, for decades, our default response to nearly every societal challenge has been the same.

Send police.

Mental health crises, substance abuse, homelessness, noise complaints, traffic issues, UDAL 911, and no matter the nature of the call, a cruiser shows up, lights flashing.

But we know that approach does not always serve people.

We know that most calls for service are not emergencies and do not involve a crime in progress.

And we know that asking police to respond to every situation, especially those involving behavioral health or social needs, can sometimes escalate crises rather than resolve them, particularly in communities where trust and law enforcement has been strained.

I want to be very clear this evening.

We support our police, and I believe every Columbus resident should be able to call 911 and get the help that they need when they're in crises.

But we also recognize that we need it to be more strategic about how we deploy our resources.

That understanding is what led council to launch the Reimagining Public Safety Initiative, which worked to redefine what safety really means, moving beyond a narrow reactive model and toward one that addresses the full range of factors that keep communities safe.

Alongside policing reforms and strategies like youth programming, we began building something new.

A system of alternative approach to crisis response.

We have invested in programs like the Right Response Unit, where social workers support 9 1 1 dispatch decisions, like the Mobile Crisis Unit, which pairs clinicians and officers when behavioral health expertise is needed, and React and the Spark team, which respond to overdoses and connect residents to critical services.

That progress is the result of tireless work by police, by fire, our public health partners, and community leaders who never stop pushing us to do better.

Today we have a growing network of interdependent interdepartmental and community-led programs that are actively reshaping how we think about safety and how we execute care.

That work has not always been easy.

At times it has been slow, but the early outcomes show real promise, and they tell us something important that this approach works, and we need to keep doing it.

And if we didn't know it from the data, we know it from the fact that over 20,000 residents have signed a ballot measure championed by the Columbus Safety Collective, demanding that the city keep going.

Which brings us to the to today.

The Mission Critical Partners report builds on this foundation and provides a clear roadmap for what comes next.

Full disclosure, I have not read all 200 pages of this report.

We were talking about this upstairs, but that's what I'll be doing over holiday break.

But here are a few things that jump out to me right off the bat.

First, it is time to establish a non-armed, non-uniformed crisis response option.

The report calls this a civilian response unit or a CRU, which would deploy trained licensed clinicians and peer support specialists to situations which aren't violent.

I believe that this community is ready for this.

Second, it is time to figure out some centralized organizational structure or office that synchronizes all this work so that we have one citywide strategy for crisis response.

Third, this approach actually saves money.

It is more effective and efficient.

It is a more effective and efficient way for a big city to provide public safety.

We should deploy highly trained police officers, paramedics, and firefighters to work at their highest and best use.

And we can deploy social workers, clinicians, and peer support specialists for the work that they do best.

Fourth, to help us implement this report, we need to create a table where everyone sits together.

Community members, council, administration, labor leaders, experts, and city staff.

It's time to establish the advisory commission that we've long talked about.

I'm gonna stop there because today's discussion is about understanding and understanding the many recommendations, asking the hard questions, and imagining what it looks like to implement them responsibly and effectively.

It's about ensuring that when someone is in crisis, that they get the response that they need every time.

So I'm grateful for the work that has brought us here today, and I'm excited for the conversation ahead as we consider how to take this uh to the next uh step.

Um I want to thank my uh colleagues.

I want to thank uh council member Beatty.

Uh, even after his last sitting meeting, he is still showing up for work, uh showing up to the very end.

Very grateful for Councilmember Beatty.

And I'm gonna turn it over to my two colleagues who are co-chairing this hearing with me.

Uh first starting with Councilmember Reamy.

Chair Reamy.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Um, as you mentioned, uh, there's been a lot of work to get to this point, and I'm excited to hear from mission critical partners about their analysis into our current programs and the opportunities ahead of us as it relates to alternative crisis response.

I too have not read the full report yet, but um certainly uh have glanced through it and saw some of the suggestions that that have been made.

We have a real opportunity right now to go above and beyond what I believe is already an impressive portfolio programs that serve residents when they call for help with their needs in mind.

So I'd like to thank um all of the city staff, including both council staff and staff from the Department of Public Safety, the Department of Public Health, both the divisions of fire and police who make up some of the great programs that we have today for getting us to this point, for working closely with all of our partners.