Portland Street Response (PSR) is a part of Portland’s 911 response system that assists people experiencing mental health and behavioral health crises.

One of Portland Street Response’s program goals is to handle calls that are traditionally responded to by the Portland Police Bureau where no crime is being committed. By diverting calls and thus reducing the number of calls that go to police, PSR frees up police time from low acuity calls where no crime is being committed to allow them to respond to higher priority issues faster. Additionally, this allows for calls to be responded to effectively and humanely, using teams consisting of paramedics or Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs), licensed mental health crisis responders, community health workers, and/or peer support specialists.

The numbers show the effectiveness of PSR in meeting the need of responding to low acuity calls where no crime is being committed that would otherwise go to the police. In the first years of PSR we see a rapid increase, with the limiting factor in 2024 / 2025 being staffing levels and availability of PSR units outside of their core operational hours.

The Bureau of Emergency Communication’s 911 operators maintain records about 911 calls, of which the ‘type’ of call is one. Type codes describe the broad nature of the call, and can be used to identify whether a particular PSR call would otherwise have resulted in a police dispatch.

Portland Street Response will be dispatched when a caller reports:

• A person who is possibly experiencing a mental health crisis; intoxicated and/or drug affected. This person is outside of a publicly accessible space such as a business, store, public lobby, etc.
• A person who is outside and down, not checked.
• A person who is outside and yelling.
• A person who needs a referral for services, but does not have access to a phone line.
• PSR is not staffed 24/7 - a unit must be available.

The call meets the previous criteria - AND

•  There are no weapons seen.
•  The person is not in traffic/not obstructing traffic.
•  The person is not violent towards others (physically combative, threatening violence, assaulting).
•  The person is not suicidal.
• The person is not inside of a private residence.

More information on Portland Street Response can be found at the PSR website , and additional data can be found at the PSR Dashboard.

You can call 911 to request Portland Street Response. Our 911 dispatchers will have a list of questions they will ask to determine which responder is most appropriate to send: Police, Fire, Portland Street Response, or AMR ambulance service. If the call fits the criteria for Portland Street Response, dispatchers will alert the team and send them to the call.