ACTION Team
About
In February 2025, Mayor Evans announced the City of Rochester will take the next steps in building out a community responder team, the ACTION Team, with a goal of rolling out a first phase in September 2025.
The ACTION Team will consist of full-time employees who would respond to low-risk 911 calls, providing quick and effective responses to non-urgent calls for help. ACTION Team members will have expertise in de-escalation, conflict resolution, and connecting community members to services, helping build sustainable safety and well-being across the city.
By addressing non-violent and non-urgent calls for help promptly, the ACTION team would allow law enforcement officers to focus time and resources on more dangerous situations. An important next step in the plan’s implementation includes working with the Locust Club to ensure community responder team activities align with RPD’s current union contract.
The announcement follows a more than year-long exploration of the community responder team concept. In 2023, the Mayor’s Office contracted with Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP), and today Mayor Evans released a report of LEAP’s recommendations for Rochester. During the exploration, City representatives also engaged with other cities that have successfully implemented a community responder team, including Albuquerque, NM and Evanston, Ill.
LEAP’s recommendations provide a framework that outlines a phased approach with multiple considerations. In its first phase, 10 ACTION Team members would operate from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., responding to two specific 911 call types: trespassing incidents and annoyance incidents. Quarterly, the City would review progress and make appropriate adjustments to maximize service delivery.
In future phases, the City will hire additional team members, extend hours of service to 24 hours each day, and expand the team’s call types to include welfare checks, customer trouble, and neighbor trouble.
The region’s Emergency Communications Center will also play a crucial role, as 911 operators would screen incoming calls for disqualifiers – including violence, weapons, and emergency medical needs – before dispatching the ACTION Team.
The ACTION Team would report into the City’s Department of Recreation and Human Services, and serve in a distinct yet complementary role to the City’s Person in Crisis (PIC) Team.
Like the City’s PIC Team, ACTION Team members would carry radios to request back-up when needed. Unlike the PIC Team, the ACTION Team would not be sent to calls in tandem with police officers. The PIC Team would remain first responders for people experiencing mental health crises.
In addition to ensuring Locust Club alignment, in the months before launch in September, the City will establish protocols, hire ACTION Team members, train new hires and 911 operators, and foster strong relationships for team members across City departments.
