A new program within the Albany Police Department that dispatches unarmed case workers to 911 calls – including for people having mental health issues – offers insight into how a similar effort could be launched at a much larger scale under New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
Albany’s CART Team – for Community Advocacy Response Team – sends social service caseworkers in teams of two to patrol the streets in a city car. They respond to calls that don’t necessarily involve a crime, freeing armed police officers for other matters.
“The officers are the walking encyclopedia for penal codes and laws,” said Diana Macy, one of two senior crisis caseworkers who lead the program. “We’re the walking encyclopedias for resources to address social determinants.”
Cities across the country are experimenting with similar programs, but most operate outside the police department. In Rochester, a nonprofit agency called Hope First Roc urges people to call it for help instead of 911 for non-police matters. Kingston has a subset of specially trained police officers who do proactive outreach in “hot spots.”
New York City’s B-HEARD program sends teams of social workers and emergency medical technicians to certain 911 calls. Mamdani has said he plans to integrate alternative response programs into a new Department of Community Safety, separate from the NYPD.
Albany Police Chief Brendan Cox announces that the CART team did more than 100 calls in its first month.
Jimmy Vielkind
“What’s frustrating is that we have evidence of approaches that work, but they are not operating at the scale that they could be,” Mamdani said during an interview in September. “There were 35% of calls that B-HEARD was eligible for they did not respond to, and the police responded to.”
Albany’s CART team is dispatched directly by 911 operators and officers in the field. Police Chief Brendan Cox said the case workers responded to more than 100 calls in October, the program’s first full month.
CART workers have started by co-responding with officers. But that will change soon as officers and the CART workers adjust to the new approach. Cox says the goal is to send CART officers alone to certain calls.
“The easy answer is we’ll just continue to send police on everything,” Cox said recently. “I don’t think we’re providing the right level of service in doing that. … I think we found that balance.”
On a recent afternoon, Macy and her colleague Brooke LaTart drove around the city monitoring the department’s dispatch screen and cradling a radio. They carried brochures about a drop-in center that offers meals and showers as well as instructions for signing up for health insurance.
LaTart recalled a success story in which an older woman kept calling 911 to report her car was stolen. Officers responded but couldn’t find evidence of a theft. LaTart eventually met with the woman and determined that she had sold the car three years ago – but couldn’t remember the sale due to dementia.
LaTart determined the woman had stable housing and access to services for food and health care. So LaTart told dispatchers and the desk clerks at Albany’s police stations to simply forward the woman’s calls to her cell.
Diana Macy on patrol in downtown Albany.
Jimmy Vielkind
“Now she’ll call my phone multiple times a day and we’ll just chat. And she’ll ask the same questions and she’s upset about her car, and things like that, but there hasn’t been one police call since,” she said.
Macy and LaTart walked through a library branch to look for people who were sleeping and might need housing assistance. Along Central Avenue, Macy walked by a man with a shopping cart who was sweeping the sidewalk by the vestibule of a vacant store. She recognized him and noticed he was walking with a shuffle because his heels were coming out of his shoes.
“He wears size 13,” she said. “I’ll see if we can get him a new pair.”
The sun set and a call came over the radio. Two officers were at a group home in North Albany where a man was threatening staff and his fellow residents. The attendant was working alone that night, and wanted the man removed.
Macy told the officers that would be difficult to do because the man was entitled to a room in the group home. But she thought of a workaround.
“If we were able to get you someplace else for just the night so that everybody can kind of just take a break and chill out until tomorrow, would you be willing to do that?” she asked the man.
He agreed, and Macy called the hotline for a placement at one of the city’s warming centers.
The officers drove the man to the shelter. No one was arrested.
And Macy went back on patrol.