Baltimore, MD – Sept. 15, 2026 – Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and City Council President Zeke Cohen have introduced legislation that would create a new city department responsible for responding to certain nonviolent emergency calls without police involvement.
The proposed Department of Neighborhood Safety would operate alongside the Baltimore Police Department and Baltimore City Fire Department as an additional branch of the city’s public safety system. It would incorporate the existing Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, known as MONSE, while establishing a broader alternative-response program.
Under the proposal, trained professionals such as social workers, behavioral health clinicians, and recovery counselors could be dispatched to calls that do not involve an immediate threat of violence. Those calls could include welfare checks, public nuisance complaints, trespassing, loitering, and certain behavioral health emergencies.
Situations involving possible weapons or a greater safety risk would continue to receive a law enforcement response. In some cases, a clinician and police officer could be dispatched together as a co-response team.
City officials estimate that approximately 22,000 calls received by Baltimore’s 911 system each year could potentially be handled by alternative responders. About one-third of those calls reportedly involve people experiencing homelessness.
“This is about delivering the right response to 911 calls,” Scott said while announcing the initiative. City leaders said the change would allow police officers and other emergency personnel to concentrate on violent crime and emergencies requiring a traditional public safety response.
The proposed department would also oversee follow-up teams composed of social workers and peer-support specialists. Those teams would help connect residents with behavioral health care, substance-abuse treatment, housing assistance, and other services following an emergency encounter.
Baltimore began testing 911 diversion strategies in 2021. Eligible calls can currently be transferred to a clinician working within the 911 center, the 988 behavioral health crisis system, or a team consisting of a police officer and licensed clinician. The proposed department would expand and formalize those efforts.
City officials said the Baltimore initiative draws from Durham, North Carolina’s HEART program, which sends unarmed professionals to selected nonviolent calls. Cohen and members of the mayor’s staff visited Durham to observe the program.
The Scott administration’s fiscal 2027 budget directs more than $16 million toward elements of the initiative. That includes $12.4 million for replacing Baltimore’s aging computer-aided dispatch system, $3.4 million from opioid settlement funds for initial planning, and $1 million in federal funding to expand alternative-response capabilities. The dispatch-system allocation is also supplemented by state funding.
MONSE’s existing violence-prevention and neighborhood-engagement programs would continue under the new department, according to the administration. Current MONSE employees are expected to remain in place during the transition.
The legislation must receive City Council approval before the department can be formally established. If it passes, the city plans to conduct a nationwide search for an executive director, who would be subject to council confirmation.
Information for this report was drawn from the Baltimore City Mayor’s Office announcement and additional local reporting.
