Centring community and care: why Australia needs an alternative to police-first responses

By Chloe Fragos

Too often, police are not the appropriate first responders to incidents. The Alternative First Responders campaign by the National Justice Project offers an alternative that invests in solutions as diverse as our communities.

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The evidence is hard to ignore. Australia’s growing police-first approach puts force where community and care should lead. The right response needs the right people. The cases, stories, and statistics paint a frightening picture: harming people and communities, and entrenching barriers to accessing the support and care they need. At best, the system is not working. At worst, it’s inflicting lethal force and lasting harm that reverberates through families, kin, friends, and whole communities.

It’s clear there is an urgent need for change, for an alternative response that centres care not force. And that’s exactly what the National Justice Project is calling for in its recent position paper, backed by a growing coalition of national peak bodies and community-led organisations.

The paper lays out a reality that is impossible to ignore:

Between 2017-2022, 43% of critical incidents where a person was seriously injured or killed during a police response in NSW involved a person experiencing mental health distress.

Moreover:

Culturally and racially marginalised communities, particularly First Nations communities, have long histories of over policing, racial profiling and disproportionate incarceration at the hands of law enforcement in Australia. When discussing police use of force, it is essential to consider the intersection of race and systemic discrimination in Australia.

It is critical that we confront the fact that the default police-first response entrenches systemic racism and injustice, fuelling racial profiling, over-policing and the grossly disproportionate incarceration of targeted communities across the nation.

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Supporters of the Alternative First Responders campaign have added their voice to the movement via a series of public pledges. Here are just a few:

“I have loved ones with mental illness and have witnessed and heard of excessive force and taunting instead of compassion and understanding, this is even evident with some security guards at hospitals and it’s heartbreaking to see.”

“Have had to help a housemate go to a psych hospital, it was a dangerous situation but the cops insisting on being present only made it worse.”

I’ve been in situations where I needed to be able to call someone other than police for assistance. We need that option accessible and funded!

“I worry all the time for my brother who has a disability as an adult man and how he may be perceived by police if he ever needed extra support. I have seen how security at airports have reacted to him “not listening” before and who did not respond with kindness. If the same response was by police and with a gun this could be life threatening.”

“I’m an Elder in community and support some of our youth living with mental health issues and drug issues. First responders [who know they are going to Black families and young people] don’t often believe they are being called for physical illness.”

“I was an operational police officer in both metropolitan and remote locations in New South Wales. Uniform police at mental health incidents are not the answer. Nor is training police in yet another mental health course.”

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Even with such a clear need for alternatives, the continued use of police-led responses criminalises and stigmatises people who need care, support, or assistance. It’s an inefficient use of resources that should be reinvested into resources and responses that create thriving communities - because there is a better way.

Community must inform the model for alternative first responders

As for what the alternative looks like? The answers are as diverse as our communities. Critically, alternative first responder models must be informed by the very people they are there to support. What unifies them all is putting care first, not force.

Local communities, and particularly marginalised peoples across Australia and around the world, have created their own alternative responses to health and social issues. Communities have emerged as leaders in both championing and modelling alternatives to policing, often with scarce or no resources. As a campaign, we want to see this as the new default backed by equitable funding, courageous investment, and resources for the right response.

Numerous examples of community-driven innovation already exist, from community patrols, drop-in centres, and peer-led support. Despite the statistics showing the imperative for change, behind them are stories of strength and resilience. These stories deserve more than to be merely repeated - these stories are expertise, knowledge, and the anchor for policy - we need to be courageous and put this into action to see the greatest change.

Next week, the National Justice Project will bring together advocates and experts for an online symposium that will highlight how alternative responder models are more than an ambitious idea - with the right investment, they can be put into practice successfully and sustainably. We can change the status quo. Alternatives to police are not new; they are necessary, and communities across the world, including here in Australia, are leading the way.

From drop-in centres (Mudin-Gal Women’s Space, Lou’s Place, Family Violence Prevention Legal Services) to community outreach programs like Murri Watch and Mobile Aboriginal Patrol in Adelaide, and the often unseen work of peers – there is no shortage of examples showing how we can meet people with the right response, from the right people, with the right care.

So, we call on the community to challenge the status quo and re-evaluate the need for police intervention. We urgently need policy and funding reforms that centre community and other alternative first responder models. This commitment must involve a flourishing ecosystem to ensure responses are deeply embedded in localised justice, human rights, and care for everyone.

The right response starts with the right people making a system that works for everyone.

References

Hopkins, T (2020), ‘Litigating racial profiling: Examining the evidence for institutional racial profiling by police against African-Australians in Flemington, Victoria’, Australian Journal of Human Rights 26(2), 209-226

Australian Law Reform Commission, Pathways to justice—An inquiry into the incarceration rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (Report, 2018), 21.

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About the author

Chloe Fragos

Chloe is a legal and policy advocate with nearly a decade of experience across Australia, including in some of the country’s most remote regions. She has seen the law’s impact in courtrooms, prisons, and policy, while working alongside women and communities, witnessing the powerful grassroots innovation driving transformative justice. Now at the National Justice Project, she leads campaigns for alternative first responders, building coalitions and supporting community-led frameworks for systemic change.

About the campaign

Alternative First Responders

The Alternative First Responders campaign is a project of the National Justice Project, an independent not-for-profit legal and civil rights organisation working to dismantle systemic discrimination. The Alternative First Responders campaign calls on us to reimagine the first response, move away from a police-first default, and invest in solutions as diverse as our communities. The right response starts with the right people, making a system that works for everyone. With diversity and community involvement in the first response, care comes first, not force.

To add your support to the Alternative First Responders campaign, you can sign the pledge here, and you can find further details on next week’s symposium below.

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Alternative First Responders: Policy, People and Practice for Building a Response Beyond Police

Join the National Justice Project online on October 16th 2025 to hear more about the people, practice, and policy behind alternative first responders – tickets are available here.

During the symposium, you’ll hear from two international keynote speakers who have designed and delivered bold policy solutions:

Alexander Heaton (U.S.A), launched a national campaign to divert 12 million calls annually from police to alternate responses by 2023 . Gina M. Nagano (Canada) brings her significant expertise and deep commitment to community safety planning, restorative justice, and land-based healing to build safer and healthier communities and Indigenous self-determination.

Joining Alexander and Gina will be an afternoon of advocates from across the nation who are all part of the same chorus for a change to the first response. This diversity is the greatest strength in reimagining what an alternative looks like.