Community Safety Department Publishes 2025 Impact Report

The City of Cambridge’s Community Safety Department today published its 2025 Impact Report, which provides an overview of the Department’s Community Assistance Response and Engagement (CARE) Team’s response to 9-1-1 calls and community outreach over the last calendar year.

Now in its second year of operation, CARE provides an alternative unarmed civilian response to 9-1-1 calls for non-violent behavioral health crises. They also provide community support via referrals while engaging with community members and direct outreach from City employees. In 2025, CARE responded to 1,015 calls, which was a significant increase from the 208 calls they responded to between July-December 2024. 43% of the total calls in 2025 involved mental or behavioral health needs. Additional needs include physical healthcare, housing, elder support, substance abuse dependency and general clinician support, and food services.

When CARE first launched its 9-1-1 response in 2024, responders and clinicians were dispatched to individuals in crisis three days a week. By March 2025, CARE provided five days of alternative response, which resulted in more than 2,500 available hours supporting residents with mental and behavioral health concerns and overall well-being.

CARE has increasingly resolved calls independently without police involvement in crisis situations. In fact, 96% of calls were resolved in 2025 without the need for a police response. Furthermore, there was a 70% increase in calls where police requested CARE support.

“From the outset, the City of Cambridge and Community Safety Department have sought to reimagine the landscape of public safety,” said Marie Mathieu, Director of the Cambridge Community Safety Department. “I have been so proud of the lives that have been transformed thanks to the collective efforts of CARE and our amazing partners. Our important work continues to evolve and the impact continues to be more widespread.”

Many calls that CARE responds to result in follow-up care coordination. In 2025, the CARE Team served approximately 257 community members with short-term case management and referral support. Case management services include housing search, addressing food insecurity, eviction aid, emotional support, referrals to partner organizations and other basic need support and services.

The report was unveiled this week at two community celebrations that included the Department’s new documentary, “Beyond the Call.” The impact report also features the mission, values and goals of the Department, examples of the support CARE provides, how operations have grown over the first year-and-a-half, an overview of the current team and its vast expertise, background on the team’s training and development, community connections, success stories, plans to continue to grow in the upcoming year, and more.

Read more in the 2025 Community Safety Department Impact Report.

To contact the CARE team regarding a crisis response, community members should dial 9-1-1 and request CARE. For non-emergencies, community members can call (617) 349-7200 and team members will respond to any messages.

To learn more about the Community Safety Department, please visit www.cambridgesafety.org, email info@cambridgesafety.org, or subscribe to the Cambridge CARE Team monthly newsletter.