Council President Zeke Cohen, the bill's leading advocate, framed the vote as a matter of life and death. "This council believes, and I believe, that no one should die in a mental health crisis, and yet too often we've seen that too many people who call 911 who are struggling with mental health, the situation ends poorly," Cohen said. "And so we are incredibly excited about this effort, this initiative."

Under the proposal, 911 dispatchers would be trained to assess whether a caller needs a police officer or a behavioral health professional. The responding clinician could be a peer specialist, a social worker or a psychiatrist, Cohen said.

Cohen emphasized that the new department would not replace police in every situation. "I want to be very clear that in many cases there will be a co-response, where a police officer will join the clinician," he said. "We don't ever want to put anyone in harm's way, and we know situations can become volatile. That's why in some cases we will have both an officer and a clinically trained person."

The council president argued the change would benefit law enforcement as much as residents in crisis. "Our law enforcement is completely overstretched dealing with mental health, dealing with homelessness, dealing with issues that they really aren't trained for, and they shouldn't be involved in," Cohen said. "Most people sign up to be police officers because they want to go stop bad guys. They don't want to be spending 40, 50 percent of their day going out doing mental health calls."

Cohen said the department would be stood up as "its own third branch of public safety," alongside police and fire, drawing a parallel to emergency medical response. "In the same way when someone needs an ambulance, that ambulance needs to show up quickly. We expect the same for mental health," he said. "Mental health should be treated just as seriously as someone's physical health, and that's what this department is all about."

Asked how quickly the department could begin operating if the bill passes, Cohen declined to give a timeline but promised urgency paired with care. "I would say that we are going to do this urgently, but we're also going to do it thoughtfully," he said.

He added that response times will determine whether residents trust the new system. "No one is going to utilize the service if they don't get an immediate response," Cohen said. "And to me, the definition of a crisis is now. And so my expectation is that [it is] going to move fast."

If the council approves the legislation Monday, it will go to the mayor's desk for final approval. The proposal builds on a broader push at City Hall to reimagine public safety beyond armed policing, an effort that has gained momentum as cities nationwide experiment with civilian crisis response teams.