KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — In 2024, Knoxville and Knox County funded an Alternative Response Task Force to look into the feasibility of creating a community responder program. At the end of last year, a final report prepared for the task force recommended that the city and county consider creating that program.
The program would have multiple teams of behavioral health specialists and medics that would respond to low-risk 911 calls.
A local organization, Knoxville HEART, has been pushing for the program’s creation for years. Elizabeth Rowland has been with them since the beginning…