Tulsa adds mental health clinicians to 911 center

Tulsa's 911 Center diverted more than 600 calls to mental health professionals, instead of police, in the first month of a new program expanding who responds to emergency calls.

Family and Children's Services supplies a clinician inside the 911 center, able to dispatch first responder teams with a clinician, or refer callers to civilian resources, like COPES.

Tulsa Police have created an online dashboard to document how many calls are diverted from police and paramedics to mental health professionals. "When someone calls 911 in the middle of a crisis, they don't always need sirens, but they do always need support," said Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols, at a news conference to mark the first full month of results from the program. According to City statistics, the 911 Center took more than 86,000 calls in March, and for calls involving a person in a mental health crisis, diverted 86% of calls to clinicians instead of police.

Tulsa Police Deputy Chief Jonathan Brooks said, "There's fewer unneeded transports by EMSA, fewer unnecessary contacts by police, and fewer unnecessary fire apparatus being deployed, because of what these clinicians are doing."

FCS estimated the service will cost about $450,000 a year for the clinician in the 911 Center and in the field, while TPD estimates that at least half that is saved by not sending police officers to all mental health situations. Amanda Bradley with Family and Children's Services noted the value is best measured in better outcomes for people in crisis. "It's expensive to operate, paying the clinicians and the salaries that go along with that, but when you think of the human cost of not doing that, I think the cost is much greater," she said.

Despite a threat of a state funding cut by May 10th, Bradley said, "I can tell you that Family and Children Services is committed to making this a successful program. We've seen too much success in just the last two months."

BY THE NUMBERS:

Tulsa 911 Center, March 2025

Total Calls: 86,758

Mental Health Calls Divert: 86%

Police Diverted: 612 calls

Fire Paramedics Diverted: 138 calls

EMSA Diverted: 139 calls