This week (May 5-8) I will be joining ACLU leaders from across the country in Washington, D.C., to call on Congress to protect programs that keep our communities safe by passing bills like the Mental Health Justice Act, which would authorize grants to fund crisis response teams staffed by trained mental health professionals—not police.
Unfortunately, that safety is now at risk as the Trump administration continues slashing millions in funding for federal grant programs and is pressuring Congress to cut billions from the federal budget. As a result of these cuts, evidence-based programs that reduce violence, help people find housing, and provide addiction treatment and mental healthcare are all under threat.
Here in North Carolina, we have already seen what’s possible when we invest in safety the right way by addressing the root causes of public safety issues. Durham’s Holistic Empathetic Assistance Response Team (HEART) is a proven model of what happens when we fund care and not criminalization. Since it's official launch in 2022, HEART has responded to over 26,000 emergency calls with four distinct response units: Crisis Call Diversion, Community Response Teams, Care Navigation, and Co-Response. Each unit focuses on keeping community members safer by connecting them with the appropriate care through rapid, compassionate, and informed approaches.
These programs save lives. They prevent trauma and reduce unnecessary arrests and hospitalizations by connecting people to the long-term support they need. But programs like HEART don’t just happen. They require investment and sustained funding.
This year, Durham’s Community Safety Department is requesting a $4 million increase in city funding to expand HEART’s reach, hire more staff, extend its services to 24/7, and meet more of the 911 calls that qualify for its response. As it stands, HEART teams are only able to respond to just over half of those eligible calls, leaving nearly 20,000 unanswered last year due to staffing limitations. The need is urgent, and the solution is clear. As Durham’s City Council prepares to vote on its 2025–26 budget this June, we also urge them to follow the evidence. Investing in HEART is investing in the kind of safety that uplifts, rather than harms, our communities.
Law enforcement officials, by their own admission, are not mental health professionals. Thus, relying on them as the default responders to individuals in mental health crisis can be problematic. As we have seen across the country, when people in urgent need of help are met with force that can lead to criminalization, incarceration, and even death.
We must expand programs like HEART. A recent ACLU YouGov survey found the majority (65%) of North Carolina voters support such programs, allowing police to focus on serious crime while ensuring people in crisis receive the care they need. By more than a three-to-one margin, 80% of voters say that we need to address homelessness as a resource issue, focusing on improving access to affordable housing, mental health, and addiction services. National data echoes what we see in North Carolina: voters want solutions that address the root causes of harm. A vast majority, 85%, say access to mental healthcare and addiction treatment improves public safety. And two-thirds of voters say we must reduce incarceration and instead prioritize rehabilitation, housing, jobs, and community care.
This is why the ACLU-NC will continue to push for both federal and local investment in the expansion of these programs. Our communities are safest when our needs are met, when mental health resources are expanded, and when response teams are trained to deal with a variety of crises through a lens of justice and rehabilitation.