The bill passed with support from every council member except Mark Conway, who has raised concerns about the sustainability of the department's funding and the pace of the process. Under the new system, 911 dispatchers would be trained to determine whether a caller needs a police officer or a mental health professional.

"By creating the Department of Neighborhood Safety, this Council is standing united against stigma and proving once again that we can save lives without mass incarceration," Council President Zeke Cohen said during Monday's vote.

Conway said he supports the department's mission but not its financing. "I appreciate the work to be done by the Department of Neighborhood Safety. My concern is primarily around the finances," he said.

Mayor Brandon Scott said in a statement that he looks forward to signing the bill so the city can "continue laying the foundation for this critically important work." He said the department will sustain and build on efforts that have driven historic reductions in homicides and nonfatal shootings over the past five years, codify the work of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE), and establish a formal alternative response service so residents receive the most appropriate response when they call 911.

Cohen said some calls will still bring both a police officer and a clinician. "I want to be very clear that in many cases there will be a co-response, where a police officer will join the clinician. 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," he said.

Cohen argued the change would benefit police as well as people 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," he 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."

Asked how soon the department could be operating, Cohen said the city would move with urgency but care. "I would say that we are going to do this urgently, but we're also going to do it thoughtfully," he said.

The vote marks a significant shift in Baltimore's approach to public safety, moving mental health and homelessness responses out of the police department's hands and into a civilian-led agency. How the department is funded and staffed will determine whether that vision becomes reality.