Cleveland City Council approves Tanisha’s Law to expand non-police responses for mental health emergencies citywide

A new “fourth option” for certain 911 calls

Cleveland City Council has approved Tanisha’s Law, legislation designed to expand the city’s use of non-police professionals when residents call for help during mental health and related behavioral crises. The measure creates a framework for routing certain calls to unarmed crisis-response teams rather than automatically dispatching sworn officers.

The law is named for Tanisha Anderson, who died in 2014 during an encounter with Cleveland police while experiencing a mental health crisis. The case became a focal point in local debates over how emergency systems respond when behavior is driven by illness, distress, or substance-use issues rather than criminal activity.

What the law sets up inside city government

As passed, Tanisha’s Law establishes a Bureau of Community Crisis Response intended to build out what council sponsors have described as a “fourth option” for emergency dispatch—alongside police, fire and traditional emergency medical response. The bureau is expected to operate in connection with existing emergency medical services structures, with city hiring and oversight tied to implementation.

The crisis teams described in the legislation are expected to include behavioral health professionals, social workers, clinicians and peer responders with lived experience. The model is intended to match the responder to the nature of the call when violence is not reported or expected.

Calls that could be diverted from police response

The legislation targets situations where residents seek help but an armed law-enforcement response is not necessarily required. Examples discussed in connection with the law include:

• non-violent behavioral health crises
• wellness checks
• substance-use crises
• quality-of-life calls

Supporters have emphasized that the goal is not to eliminate police response in emergencies, but to broaden the city’s ability to send specialized help when a call is primarily health-related.

How it intersects with 988 and existing local pilots

The council action comes as Cleveland and Cuyahoga County have been piloting alternatives to police-led crisis response through the 988 mental health crisis line. In parts of the city, a Care Response pilot has operated in the 44102 and 44105 ZIP codes, dispatching a two-person team—typically a licensed clinician and a peer support specialist—when dispatch screening determines there is no imminent risk to the individual or the public.

Tanisha’s Law is structured to expand non-police response capacity within the city’s 911 ecosystem, potentially increasing the number of situations where callers can be connected to clinically informed crisis intervention and follow-up referrals without law enforcement as the default.

The central operational change is the creation of an additional dispatch pathway designed specifically for crisis calls that can be handled safely without police.

Next steps and implementation questions

With passage secured, the city’s focus shifts to implementation: staffing, training, dispatch protocols, and coordination rules for when police are requested to assist. Key practical questions include how quickly teams can be deployed across the city, what call types are eligible, and how outcomes will be tracked—such as hospitalizations avoided, repeat-call patterns, and instances when police backup is needed.

City leaders have framed the law as an effort to improve safety for residents in crisis while ensuring emergency resources are used in a way that fits the situation presented by each call.