Tanisha鈥檚 Law appears to be headed toward passage at city council in the new year, more than a year after it was first introduced to council and despite opposition from Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb鈥檚 administration.
The law is named after Tanisha Anderson, who died in police custody in 2014 after her family called 911 during a mental health crisis.
Her death was one of the incidents that prompted the 2014 Department of Justice investigation of the Cleveland Division of Police and consent decree in 2015.
Tanisha's Law was first introduced at council in November of 2024 to mark the 10-year anniversary of her death.
The administration and members of the safety committee argued for about two hours Thursday over whether a completely new department should be created and if it should wait until a study of 911 calls is completed. Then, Anderson鈥檚 uncle, Michael Anderson, reminded council of the incident that led to the hearing.
鈥淚 want people to remember how she passed," Anderson said. "She passed stark, butt-naked, 22 degrees cold, on cold concrete. And then she began reciting the Lord's Prayer, asking God to extend some grace and mercy towards the officers who were holding her down. So, I'm here to ask, city hall and the lawmakers here, to extend some mercy and grace towards her.鈥�
The ordinance would create a Department of Community Crisis Response and require the city to hire specially trained dispatchers and licensed social workers who would identify and respond to calls that don鈥檛 require a police response, what鈥檚 known as a
Cleveland Police have specialized crisis intervention officers who respond to mental health calls citywide. That program is a key part of the consent decree and has been celebrated by the independent monitor and federal judge overseeing the consent decree.
Police have also started a pilot program to send 鈥渃o-responder teams鈥�, a police officer paired with a social worker, to mental health calls. But that program ends this month and it鈥檚 unclear whether it will be extended, said community activist and former researcher at Police Matters, Piet van Lier.
鈥淭he effectiveness of their work is limited by the how the program is set up, since it's not integrated into the city's infrastructure as it needs to be,鈥� van Lier. said 鈥淚t's not diverting 911 calls away from police. It's only taking 988 calls.鈥�
The social workers under the pilot program are employed by the social services agency FrontLine Service, while Tanisha鈥檚 Law would make them city employees. The co-responder teams usually don鈥檛 respond until a day or days after the incident.
Thursday, administration officials defended the crisis intervention and co-responder programs. A memo to council laying out their position described the legislation as 鈥渘ot administratively ripe鈥� while supporting the 鈥渟pirit鈥� of the law.
The city is planning to complete a 鈥渃all type analysis鈥� to get a better idea of how many calls would benefit from a non-police response, said Public Safety Director Wayne Drummond.
鈥淲e鈥檙e also open to the idea of exploring having a care response as well because we do agree that an officer does not need to respond to all situations where someone is in mental crisis,鈥� said Drummond.
How that would look is unclear at this point, according to a statement from the mayor's office.
"We are advocating to expand those [existing care response] efforts - whether that's through the ADAMHS Board, a different third-party partner or even through an existing non-law enforcement City department" said Tyler Sinclair, a spokesperson for the mayor.
The legislation鈥檚 co-sponsors, council members Stephanie Howse-Jones, Charles Slife and Rebecca Maurer, were skeptical about whether the administration truly supports moving to the care response model.
In January of 2024, that would have paid for the call type analysis, but a company still hasn鈥檛 been hired to do the work, said Maurer, who added that initial the administration opposed Tanisha鈥檚 Law based on the creation of a new department.
鈥淚 proposed 鈥榃hat would it look like for a division [instead of a department?] and all of a sudden, for the first time, in November, we got a response back saying the call type analysis is actually the first barrier,鈥� Maurer said. 鈥淎nd so, when the goalposts keep shifting, that is what creates this sense of maybe we're not actually as much on the same page as we keep saying.鈥�
Howse-Jones began working with Michael Anderson and law students at Case Western Reserve University on Tanisha鈥檚 Law in 2022. Howse-Jones said she just recently found out the call analysis hadn鈥檛 been completed yet.
鈥淚 hope that we can get to a place where we can move forward,鈥� Howse-Jones said. 鈥淏ut it has been extremely frustrating and disappointing. We haven't been working together. We haven't.鈥�
Initially, the legislation鈥檚 sponsors expect a budget of around $800,000 for a stand-alone department. Once it鈥檚 up and running, the estimate is around $3 million per year.
Councilmember Michael Polensek told administration officials Thursday that council will move ahead with the legislation in the new year, likely passing something in the first quarter, and asked them to send along any recommended amendments soon.
鈥淭he train鈥檚 leaving the station, we鈥檙e going to take action,鈥� said Polensek. 鈥淪o, you can either get on board, or you get run over.鈥�
