Baltimore, Maryland Council Approves New Department of Neighborhood Safety for Nonviolent 911 Calls

BALTIMORE, Maryland. The Baltimore City Council gave final approval on Monday, November 9, to create a Department of Neighborhood Safety, a new city agency that will handle nonviolent emergency calls, including mental health crises, that now go to police officers. Councilman Mark Conway cast the only vote against the bill. The measure now heads to Mayor Brandon Scott, who said on Monday night that he was grateful for its passage and called it an important part of the city's work to keep driving crime down.

A third branch of public safety

The department will stand alongside the Baltimore Police Department and the fire and emergency medical services as a third branch of public safety. It folds in the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, known as MONSE, and writes that office's violence prevention work into city law as a stand-alone department. CBS Baltimore reported before the vote that the change also gives the City Council more oversight of the office, which has faced hard questions this fall. The new department will build out alternative response teams, including mental health clinicians and peer specialists, so dispatchers can send a civilian team to calls that do not involve a weapon or an unsafe scene.

Council President Zeke Cohen, who led the bill, said officers are asked to do far too much and that residents in crisis deserve a response built for the call in front of them. "The city is tired of seeing people die in mental health crisis," Cohen said during the debate. He argued that shifting the right calls away from police could also ease the city's heavy police overtime spending over time, and he said the next step is a search for an executive director to run the department.

One no vote, over money

Conway said he backs the idea behind the department but voted no over its cost and the speed of the process. He put the possible starting price at $50 million or more and said the council had not seen the analysis to show that overtime savings would cover it. The full cost is still unknown. When Mayor Scott and Cohen announced the legislation on September 14, the city said the fiscal 2027 budget sets aside more than $16 million to set the department up, including $12.4 million to replace the outdated 911 dispatch computer system, with state, opioid restitution and federal money covering parts of the start.

What changes for residents

For a resident, the change is simple to state and large in practice. A call about a person in mental health crisis, a welfare check or a nuisance complaint may soon bring a trained civilian team instead of a uniformed officer. Supporters say that lowers the chance of a bad outcome for the person in crisis and frees officers for violent crime. The bill needs the mayor's signature to become law, and the city still has to hire the department's leadership, write its dispatch rules and staff its teams before the first call is answered a new way.