Seattle’s Dual Dispatch Program Is Underutilized

The Problem? The Mayor’s Letting the Police Union Run the Town.by Ashley NerbovigSeattle’s Community Assisted Response and Engagement (CARE) team launched in October of 2023 as a pseudo policing alternative composed of six social workers who respond to low-priority calls alongside police and firefighters. At launch, Mayor Bruce Harrell said the City’s 911 center would dispatch the crews to nonviolent, non-emergent, and non-medical emergency calls that required no law enforcemen