Cuyahoga County Expands 911 Co-Response Model to Parma and Parma Heights

Shaker Heights Mayor David Weiss, who oversaw the first pilot in Cuyahoga County’s First CALL program, boasted about the co-response model’s success in his city over the past three years. On Wednesday, Weiss helped usher in First CALL’s expansion to Parma and Parma Heights. Credit: Mark Oprea

In an effort to keep fewer people in jail and lighten the load for patrol officers, Cuyahoga County expanded its co-response model for policing by including Parma and Parma Heights in its purview.

Those two cities and their first responders will soon have a handful of mental health specialists in their departments working under, and funded by, the county’s Crisis Assistance and Local Linkage (First CALL) program.

On Wednesday morning, from a bay at the Parma Fire Station #2, four mayors, three police and fire chiefs and a county councilman joined Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne to usher in the fifth and sixth Northeast Ohio suburbs that will rework the way they handle with residents dealing with behavioral and mental health issues—not their crimes, necessarily.

That initiative, which Shaker Heights tested out in 2022, was talked about Wednesday in tones of overdue relief: millions of dollars in combined funding to hire social workers and clinicians to tag along with cops was a pretty good idea.

“As someone that has been in law enforcement for over 30 years, and someone who has a family member suffering from mental illness,” Shaker Heights Police Chief Wayne Hudson told press, “I professionally and personally know it’s important to have a caring response model.”

“Someone experiencing a mental health challenge is exactly that,” he added. “A health issue, and not a criminal justice issue as we’ve treated it in the past.”

First CALL is roughly new compared to programs in other cities across the country. But it has expanded locally since Shaker Heights cited its success: Cleveland Heights, South Euclid, Richmond Heights, University Heights and now Parma and Parma Heights all send out clinicians with their cops.

Around six percent of the initial $1.2 million of funding for two years—besides the funds of partnering suburbs—came directly from Cuyahoga County itself.

Parma and Parma Heights police and fire officers will soon have social workers and clinicians responding to 911 calls along with them. Credit: Mark Oprea

Cost savings is exactly how departments around the country frame the co-response model’s benefit to the community, other than its lifesaving potential.

Eugene, Oregon’s Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets program saves the city $2.2 million in officer wages per year and takes a fifth of all 911 calls. And Denver’s Support Team Assisted Response, or STAR, program costs four times less than your standard police dispatch.

In Shaker Heights, the police department diverted 560 calls to social workers and clinicians during its pilot phase, Shaker Heights Mayor David Weiss told press.

“This reduces strain on our jails, emergency rooms and our officers,” Cuyahoga County Councilman Mark Casselberry said. “And it builds trust between the public and those who want to protect them.”

The bulk of mental health-related calls deal with people suffering with psychological issues—schizophrenic episodes, dementia symptoms, drug overdoses, alcohol abuse and hallucinations. Several chiefs noted on Wednesday rising calls for suicide attempts and depression.

Parma’s had 102 drug overdoses, 659 psychological emergencies, 65 suicide attempts and 192 instances of alcohol abuse recorded in the past year and a half, Parma Fire Chief Mike Lasky said.

Calls that may be better fit to someone trained specifically in how to deal with them.

“Our firefighters train extensively to provide life-saving care,” Lasky said. “But some of these emergencies need a different type of expertise.”

Ronayne’s hope for the First CALL program is to see it expanded to the remaining cities in Cuyahoga County where the program has yet to be implemented.

Roughly $3.5 million could be earmarked for doing so, Ronayne suggested, if County Council decides to vote on expanding its contribution in the near future.

Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.