AUSTIN — Austin officials say an initiative coordinating police, health and social-service agencies has reduced repeat crisis-related police contacts for a group of people with frequent interactions with local systems. Community advocates, however, are questioning how the program uses law enforcement and whether participants’ consent is fully informed and voluntary. City staff briefed Austin City Council members on No Wrong Door on Tuesday, Oct. 6. The effort launched in April through the city manager’s office and is intended to connect people with complex social and behavioral health needs to crisis response, services and follow-up care across agencies. The initiative is part of a broader effort focused on an estimated 950 people considered at high risk of repeated crises. City figures put their combined annual use of local criminal justice, homelessness and health care services at about $137 million. Austin Police Department data for 99 people identified as high utilizers showed fewer crisis contacts during the period from May 20 to Aug. 18. Before the initiative, the group contacted authorities about once every 11 days; during the measured period, that interval grew to 16 days, a 31% reduction in contact frequency, according to the department. For a subgroup of 28 people who had previously had crisis contacts about every six days, the interval grew to 14 days, which officials described as a 57% reduction. City staff said contacts for participants were increasingly handled by crisis intervention officers or members of the No Wrong Door service network. Austin police Chief of Strategic Initiatives Maris Herold told council members that the program aims to close gaps between partner agencies and reduce police contacts so people can get help and first responders can focus on emergencies. The reported results have not resolved concerns raised by VOCAL-TX, the Texas Civil Rights Project and the ACLU of Texas. In a letter to Mayor Kirk Watson and council members, the groups said officers involved in the initiative sometimes initiate conversations with people in jail who already have attorneys without notifying or inviting those lawyers. The organizations also questioned the use of forms authorizing the release of broad medical and mental health information. They said people may be asked to sign without advice about possible legal consequences, raising doubts about whether consent is voluntary—particularly for people experiencing mental illness. The groups called on the council to end law enforcement’s role in No Wrong Door or establish safeguards for police interactions with participants. The concerns put the program’s early service-use results alongside a central policy question: how Austin can coordinate crisis care while protecting the rights and privacy of people it seeks to help.