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Fact Sheet: Expanding the Public Safety Workforce
Fact Sheet

Fact Sheet: Expanding the Public Safety Workforce

Cities across the country are investing in safety by incorporating specially trained professionals such as community responders and community violence intervention professionals into their local public safety workforces.

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Social workers provide a man experiencing homelessness with resources in a local park in Bismarck, North Dakota.
Social workers provide a man experiencing homelessness with resources in a local park in Bismarck, North Dakota, June 11, 2025. (Getty/Tyrel Iron Eyes/The Washington Post)

Localities nationwide experience a range of public safety challenges depending on community dynamics, people’s circumstances, and available resources. Police, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians work tirelessly to respond to calls for service and support community members through an emergency. However, a wide range of community concerns fall outside the core responsibilities and training of these traditional first responders. 1

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For too long, it has fallen on police to fill this gap in public safety services—to take on the work of nurses, mediators, counselors, and housing specialists. To address this gap in first response services, and to allow police to focus on the important job of solving violent crime, cities are building and resourcing programs that hire civilian professionals with a wide range of expertise. This includes expertise in deescalation, conflict mediation, and providing connections to community-based services that improve outcomes for people in need and make entire communities safer. While programs may require staffing with different skills and training, different safety protocols and governing structures, and different funding sources, cities have learned important workforce development lessons through implementation that can be applied across program types.

This fact sheet summarizes a recent report from Center for American Progress that brings together lessons learned from multiple cities, collected through interviews and research available in the field, to provide guidance to localities looking to adapt this work to their communities.

Read the report

Expanded professional roles in public safety response

Public safety professionals are the bedrock of programs such as community violence interventions and community responders, and their contributions are vital. It is important to note that programs vary from city to city, and the role that professionals play in the larger ecosystem can vary as well. Below are some common types of new public safety professional roles that compliment the work of 911, police, fire, and emergency medical services (EMS) professionals.

Community responders

Community responders are unarmed, multidisciplinary professionals who are specially trained to provide a first response to 911 calls for behavioral health, quality-of-life, and other low-level community concerns.

Behavioral health teams are often comprised of a combination of professionals who may be peer specialists,2 social workers, behavioral health clinicians,3 professionals trained in crisis intervention, nurses, or paramedics.4 When responding to calls that involve a behavioral health component, these teams offer services including deescalation, overdose prevention and reversal, emotional and material support during a crises, linkages to services, and more.

Professionals responding to quality-of-life concerns can come from various backgrounds, with some having licenses or certifications in things such as mediation,5 social work, or peer specialist work.6 Others bring relevant skills such as strong communication, relationship-building or problem-solving abilities, and a passion for community work. These professionals may be dispatched to address noise complaints, neighbor disputes, trespassing, welfare checks, and more,7 and they can provide a variety of services, including deescalating conflicts, mediating disputes, connecting people to community resources, offering emotional support, and empowering individuals to find solutions to their problems.

Examples of community responder programs include:

  • Canopy Roots8
  • Denver STAR9
  • Angelo Quinto Community Response Team (AQCRT)10
  • Atlanta Policing Alternatives & Diversion (PAD) Initiative11

Community violence intervention professionals

Community violence intervention professionals directly engage with and deliver services to individuals who are closest to violence in their communities to prevent a conflict from escalating to violence. These programs target hard-to-reach individuals before, during, or immediately after an incident to deliver trauma-informed responses that address conditions that drive violence, offer connections to local resources, and provide long-term case management support.

CVI professionals are often credible messengers within their community, meaning they have lived experiences with incarceration or involvement with a street organization and hyperlocal community knowledge, which enables them to reach individuals and operate in places that police and other public safety professionals generally cannot. Depending on the program, CVI professionals may be street outreach workers providing deescalation, relationship building, and trauma support in communities; case managers making linkages to community resources and offering follow-up support; cognitive behavioral therapy specialists who can provide behavioral and trauma recovery supports; or community health workers who can offer health education services and inform the development and evaluation of programs.

Examples of CVI programs include:

  • Advance Peace12
  • Chicago CRED13
  • Roca14
  • Cure Violence Global15

Reporting and investigation professionals

Reporting and investigation professionals are trained to respond to emergency and nonemergency calls by conducting investigations of incidents, such as collisions or theft, and drafting reports.

Police departments nationwide have begun civilianizing certain roles that do not require an armed officer, including low-priority, nonviolent incidents that primarily involve reporting and investigatory duties.16 While there are no standardized education requirements for reporting and investigation professionals, they typically come to the work with or are trained in strong communication;17 customer service;18 computer skills;19 knowledge of city services;20 and the ability to collect, report,21 and manage documents.22 Their responsibilities may include interviewing callers, victims, or witnesses;23 collecting reports;24 and coordinating follow-up support when necessary.25

Examples of reporting and investigation professionals include:

  • Telephone reporting units in Baltimore and Washington, D.C.26
  • Online reporting units in Minneapolis27 and New Orleans28
  • Crash investigation units in North Carolina29 and Denver30

Other public safety workforce professionals

Cities have also begun hiring public safety professionals to maintain a consistent presence in communities and provide proactive outreach services in key community locations such as transit hubs or commercial corridors. These professionals include the following:

  • Homeless outreach professionals: Outreach professionals work in interdisciplinary teams to meet people experiencing homelessness where they are,31 address their material needs,32 and provide connections to supportive community resources and services.33 Many have lived experience with homelessness while others may bring experiences in social work and behavioral health fields. Washington. D.C.’s Pathways to Housing program is one example.34
  • Transit ambassadors: Transit ambassadors help ensure the safety of riders by helping people navigate transit stations, respond to and help deescalate conflicts, report incidents that occur throughout the transit system,35 connect unhoused riders to services, and call for additional assistance when needed. Los Angeles’ transit ambassadors are one example.36

Principles for new public safety professional roles

  1. 911 professionals, police, fire, and EMS have a critical role to play in delivering public safety. Expanding the types of professionals able to respond to emergency situations will alleviate the burden on the current workforce and ensure the right responder is sent to every call.
  2. People with community ties and experiences that are similar to the populations who they will service should be recruited for new public safety professional roles.
  3. Cities should work to create lateral and progressive workforce pathways to ensure that people can transition into other public safety or local government roles.
  4. Local leadership and governments should seek to create a whole-of-government approach to safety where all government and community stakeholders work collaboratively to craft and implement solutions to meet community needs and improve safety.

Frequently asked questions

As local governments take steps to ensure that there are adequate resources to meet communities’ diverse public safety needs, it is critical to ensure that any new public safety staffing complement existing professional roles and functions. While this process will look different from city to city, governments often grapple with similar questions.

What types of responders do cities need to address communities’ public safety concerns?

Cities can collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data to determine the public safety gap they are trying to fill and inform program design, implementation, and evaluation:

  • Quantitative data such as call data from emergency and nonemergency numbers,37 health care data, and local crime data38 help paint a broad picture of needs and service usage in different communities.
  • Qualitative data and information gathering complement the analysis of quantitative data through a variety of strategies including surveys, community interviews, and focus groups39 and should center the experiences of individuals who are closest to crime and violence in their communities while also engaging police, fire, EMS, and 911 professionals as well as community-based organization and providers.

What essential skills are common across the public safety workforce, and how can cities train new professionals to ensure competency?

Cities should think holistically about the qualifications needed for new roles and seek to create interdisciplinary teams that employ professionals with skills that complement one another and mesh well with existing police, fire, and EMS resources. While desired skills will differ depending on the program, there are some commonalities in skills that will be helpful across public safety roles:

  • Crisis intervention, mediation, and deescalation: Professionals should be skilled at assessing risk, remaining calm under pressure, displaying patience and empathy,40 and offering solutions to deescalate crisis situations.
  • Report taking and data collection: Collecting information and distilling it into reports is critical to understanding the scope of services provided by programs and the effectiveness and impact of programs.
  • Community connections: Public safety responders should understand the community context, as well as the cultural and racial dynamics, in which they are working and have a base of knowledge about the available resources to make their clients feel comfortable and build trust. They should be able to use this knowledge to directly connect individuals to community-based supports that would meet their needs over the long term.
  • Lived experience: Personal experiences with behavioral health symptoms, homelessness, or violence, as well as identifying as part of a marginalized community, can be an invaluable asset to responder teams, allowing professionals to connect with clients in ways those without that experience cannot.41

How should cities train and provide professional development opportunities for new public safety roles?

Cities should offer robust training opportunities before beginning work and provide opportunities for ongoing training to ensure that professionals stay up to date on best practices and available community resources. They should also develop pipelines to allow and prepare professionals for advancement and transitions into other local workforce roles. Training types employed by cities can include:

  • Skills-based training to ensure that they have core skills required for their role
  • Ongoing protocol training that keeps them up to date on all program roles and protocols
  • Scenario-based training to allow them to test their skills in hypothetical scenarios and receive coaching and feedback
  • Field-based training that provides opportunities for responders to experience navigating protocols and providing services in real-life scenarios with others who are already trained and providing services in the community

How can new city infrastructure support and coordinate among an expanded public safety workforce?

Cities can create dedicated civilian-led offices within local government to break down silos between government agencies and directly oversee program staff or resource community-based organizations that hire public safety professionals.42 These dedicated offices and departments work well when they have strong support from the mayor and other local decision-makers but maintain the ability to operate with autonomy and authority when making program and staffing decisions or implement changes.

Should cities hire new professionals directly or contract with community-based organizations?

Whether cities decide to hire new professionals directly, contract them through community-based organizations, or opt for a hybrid approach, they should strive to ensure that new professionals have access to the most favorable compensation and benefits terms and opportunities for professional growth and advancement. When making the decision about which approach to take, cities often consider how the selected approach would affect new professionals’ access to compensation, benefits, job stability, future employment pathways, the positions’ hiring speed, requirements, eligibility, and the buy-in of the community and government stakeholders.

Who are the key governmental stakeholders and leaders to engage in developing and implementing programs with new professionals?

Cities can engage key policymaker champions through consistent communication and data sharing. In turn, these champions can help support efforts to create new public safety roles in the following ways:

  • Mayors can create new city infrastructure, dedicate resources, provide a vision for public safety programs, enhance messaging and communication, and bring parties to the table.
  • City councils can pass legislation to create new programs, direct funding, and spread awareness of new professional roles and public safety programs.
  • Police and fire chiefs can champion reform within their departments and help ensure new professionals are integrated into the public safety workforce.

How can meaningful community engagement be ensured when expanding a city’s public safety workforce?

Cities should ensure that they have early, continuous, and meaningful engagement with communities that can provide invaluable historical context for community dynamics and insight into community safety priorities. They can use various tactics, including focus groups, advisory committees, surveys, town hall meetings, interviews, and listening sessions, to directly engage community members in designing and implementing new programs.43 And cities should strive to ensure their community engagement reflects the demographics of their communities and focuses on communities that are the most affected by violence or are the highest utilizers of public safety services.

How can cities ensure new programs and roles are financially sustainable?

Cities should develop financial plans that rely on diverse federal, state, local, and private funding sources to build up and maintain expanded public safety roles and programs and help cities anticipate and prepare for future gaps in funding. Long-term plans can help cities make the most efficient use of their resources, such as using restrictive funding first or allocating one-time funds for startup costs or one-off expenses to avoid creating dependence on a limited funding stream.44 Cities have found success in helping to build the capacity of local organizations to apply for and accept grants. Cities can also create roles within programs and local offices and departments that are dedicated to financial sustainability and can help with grant seeking.

Conclusion

Expanding the public safety workforce to include a more diverse range of specially trained professionals will help cities better meet the public safety needs of communities and reduce the strain on police, fire, EMS, and dispatch professionals. By creating new professional roles and programs, cities can deliver public safety responses that complement and fill the gaps of existing workforces. While each city’s approach looks different, keeping the above considerations in mind will help ensure that strategies effectively and sustainably improve outcomes for individuals and entire communities.

Endnotes

  1. While “first responder” has a technical, statutory definition, the authors of this report use this term broadly to refer to the professionals who have traditionally provided first responses in communities: police, fire, EMS, and dispatch. The phrase “public safety workforce” is meant to include both traditional first responders and professionals in new responder roles, who may end up functioning as a first response in some cities.
  2. Peer specialists, individuals who come from the same communities and often have lived experience with behavioral health symptoms or crisis, are valued parts of community responder teams. Because of their shared background, peers can connect with clients in unique ways that other professionals typically cannot. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, “Peer Support Services Across the Crisis Continuum” (Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2022), available at https://988crisissystemshelp.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/2024-09/tacc-peer-support-services-pep24-01-019.pdf.
  3. Amos Irwin and Rachael Eisenberg, “Dispatching Community Responders to 911 Calls” (Washington: Center for American Progress, 2023), available at https://www.americanprogress.org/article/dispatching-community-responders-to-911-calls/.
  4. The Council of State Governments Justice Center, “Community Responder Program Staffing,” available at https://csgjusticecenter.org/publications/expanding-first-response/the-toolkit/staffing/ (last accessed August 2024).
  5. Dayton Mediation Center, “Our Team,” available at https://www.daytonmediationcenter.org/staff (last accessed November 2024); Cornelius Fink, “Dayton mediation unit de-escalates disputes that used to go to police,” Dayton Daily News, August 19, 2024, available at https://www.daytondailynews.com/local/dayton-mediation-unit-de-escalates-disputes-that-used-to-go-to-police/E4ARZ5Q5UREZFHQVFD5EYEMZKE/.
  6. Ashtan Grace Towles, “Explainer: A Breakdown of Community Responder Program Staff Models and Structures,” The Council of State Governments Justice Center, September 7, 2021, available at https://csgjusticecenter.org/2021/09/07/explainer-a-breakdown-of-community-responder-program-staff-models-and-structures/.
  7. The Council of State Governments Justice Center, “Mediation Response Unit – Dayton, Ohio,” December 2022, available at https://csgjusticecenter.org/publications/expanding-first-response/program-highlights/dayton-oh/.
  8. Canopy Roots, “Mobile Mental Health Crisis Response,” available at https://www.canopyrootsmn.com/crisis-response (last accessed July 2025).
  9. City and County of Denver, “Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) Program,” available at https://www.denvergov.org/Government/Agencies-Departments-Offices/Agencies-Departments-Offices-Directory/Public-Health-Environment/Community-Behavioral-Health/Behavioral-Health-Strategies/Support-Team-Assisted-Response-STAR-Program?lang_update=638728022880528243 (last accessed June 2025).
  10. City of Antioch, California, “Public Safety and Community Resources,” available at https://www.antiochca.gov/pscr/angelo-quinto-community-response-team-aqcrt/ (last accessed July 2025).
  11. Policing Alternatives & Diversion Initiative, “A new approach to community safety and wellness,” available at https://www.atlantapad.org/ (last accessed July 2025).
  12. Advance Peace, “Home,” available at https://www.advancepeace.org/ (last accessed January 2025).
  13. Chicago CRED, “A Holistic Approach To Gun Violence Prevention,” available at https://www.chicagocred.org/our-approach/ (last accessed June 2025).
  14. Roca, “How We Do It,” available at https://rocainc.org/how-we-do-it/our-intervention-model/ (last accessed June 2025).
  15. Cure Violence Global, “Proven Strategies for Safer Communities,” available at https://cvg.org/(last accessed January 2025).
  16. Police Executive Research Forum, “Embracing Civilianization: Integrating Professional Staff to Advance Modern Policing” (Washington: 2024), available at https://www.policeforum.org/assets/Civilianization.pdf; Irwin and Pearl, “The Community Responder Model: How Cities Can Send the Right Responder to Every 911 Call.”
  17. Montgomery County, Maryland, “Office Services Coordinator,” available at https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/montgomerycountymd/jobs/newprint/4720359 (last accessed June 2025).
  18. County of Henrico Police Division, “Telephone Reporting Unit Specialist,” available at https://www.tealhq.com/job/telephone-reporting-unit-specialist_6f34360b-5a8d-45e6-bf32-caa2e29a5289 (last accessed June 2025).
  19. District of Columbia Department of Human Resources, “Customer Service Representative,” available at https://careerpaths.dc.gov/page/customer-service-representative (last accessed June 2025).
  20. District of Columbia Department of Human Resources, “Customer Service Representative.”
  21. Ibid.
  22. County of Henrico Police Division, “Telephone Reporting Unit Specialist.”
  23. City of Denver, “Office of Human Resources Civilian Report Technician Lead,” available at https://denver.prelive.opencities.com/files/assets/public/v/1/job-center/documents/jobspecifications/civilian_report_technician_lead_cn3357.pdf (last accessed July 2025).
  24. Washington, D.C., Office of Unified Communications, “Telephone Reporting Unit (TRU),” available at https://ouc.dc.gov/page/telephone-reporting-unit-tru (last accessed June 2025).
  25. Washington, D.C., Office of Unified Communications, “Telephone Reporting Unit (TRU)”; City of Denver, “Office of Human Resources Civilian Report Technician Lead.”
  26. Baltimore Police Department, “Telephone Reporting Unit (TRU),” available at https://www.baltimorepolice.org/transparency/bpd-policies/506-telephone-reporting-unit-tru (last accessed August 2024); Washington, D.C., Office of Unified Communications, “Telephone Reporting Unit (TRU).”
  27. City of Minneapolis, “Online Police Report,” available at https://www.minneapolismn.gov/report-an-issue/online-police-report/ (last accessed June 2025).
  28. City of New Orleans, “File a Police Report: Report Non-Emergency Incidents Online,” available at https://nola.gov/file-a-police-report/ (last accessed June 2025).
  29. Jennifer Roberts, “New N.C. law allows trained civilians to investigate traffic crashes,” Spectrum News 1, July 21, 2023, available at https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/charlotte/news/2023/07/21/new-law-permitting-trained-civilians-to-investigate-traffic-collisions-.
  30. CBS News Colorado, “Civilian Crash Investigators Added To Denver Police Force.”
  31. Joy Moses, “Working with Unsheltered People: Findings from the Alliance’s Workforce Survey,” Homeless Research Institute, April 25, 2024, available at https://endhomelessness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/UnshelteredWorkforceReport-4-25-24_finalupdated.pdf.
  32. DC Department of Human Services, “Comprehensive Street Outreach Network,” available at https://dhs.dc.gov/page/comprehensive-street-outreach-network (last accessed July 2024).
  33. Pathways to Housing DC, “What We Do: Homeless Street Outreach,” available at https://pathwaystohousingdc.org/what-we-do/homeless-street-outreach/(last accessed July 2024).
  34. Ibid.
  35. Strive, “What is a Transit Ambassador?”, available at https://strive2bfit.com/resources/what-is-a-transit-ambassador/(last accessed December 2024).
  36. Steve Scauzillo, “Saving riders from ODs or aiding tourists, LA Metro Ambassadors take ‘good with the bad’,” Los Angeles Daily News, June 10, 2024, available at https://www.dailynews.com/2024/06/07/saving-riders-from-ods-or-aiding-tourists-la-metro-ambassadors-take-good-with-bad/?noamp=mobile.
  37. Mary C. Norris, “Alternative Non-Emergency Numbers — 988, 311, and 211,” Code for America, April 2022, available at https://discourse.codeforamerica.org/t/alternative-non-emergency-numbers-988-311-and-211/1315; 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, “If you need to talk, the 988 Lifeline is here,” available at https://988lifeline.org/(last accessed September 2025).
  38. Lindsey McLendon, Rachael Eisenberg, and Nick Wilson, “Improving Public Safety Through Better Accountability and Prevention” (Washington: Center for American Progress, 2024), available at https://www.americanprogress.org/article/improving-public-safety-through-better-accountability-and-prevention/.
  39. Irwin and Pearl, “The Community Responder Model: How Cities Can Send the Right Responder to Every 911 Call”; Amos Irwin, “Three Ways to Conduct a Needs Assessment for a Community Responder Program,” The Council of State Governments Justice Center, September 7, 2021, available at https://csgjusticecenter.org/2021/09/07/three-ways-to-conduct-a-needs-assessment-for-a-community-responder-program/.
  40. Regis College, “Master of Social Work: De-escalation Skills and Tips for Mental Health in the Community,” May 3, 2023, available at https://online.regiscollege.edu/blog/de-escalation-skills-in-mental-health/.
  41. Vanessa Finisse, “Making the Case for Engaging People with Lived Experience and Expertise in State Behavioral Health Reforms” (Hamilton, NJ: Center for Healthcare Strategies, 2024), available at https://www.chcs.org/resource/making-the-case-for-engaging-people-with-lived-experience-and-expertise-in-state-behavioral-health-reforms/#:~:text=This%20experience%20provides%20valuable%20insights,the%20behavioral%20health%20delivery%20system.
  42. Jason Tan de Bibiana and others, “Coordinating Safety: Building and Sustaining Offices of Violence Prevention and Neighborhood Safety” (New York and Oakland, CA: Vera Institute of Justice and National OVP Network, 2023), available at https://www.vera.org/downloads/publications/2023-OVPNS-Report.pdf.
  43. Irwin and Eisenberg, “Dispatching Community Responders to 911 Calls.”
  44. Policing Project, “Financing Alternative Response,” available at https://www.safetyreimagined.org/designing-a-reimagined-system/financing-alternative-response (last accessed June 2025).

The positions of American Progress, and our policy experts, are independent, and the findings and conclusions presented are those of American Progress alone. American Progress would like to acknowledge the many generous supporters who make our work possible.

Authors

Allie Preston

Senior Policy Analyst, Criminal Justice Reform

Rachael Eisenberg

Former Managing Director, Rights and Justice

Kirby Gaherty

Team

Criminal Justice Reform

We focus on developing policies to shrink the justice system’s footprint, improve public health and safety, and promote equity and accountability.

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