The Right Call

The modern ambulance was born because a Black neighborhood needed an alternative to calling the police. Communities are still answering for themselves.

Ambulances and EMTs as we know them today only exist because Black Pittsburghers in the 1960s didn’t want to call the cops. Back then, most public “ambulance services” were just police, rushing people to the hospital in the back of a van. A segregated city with deep racial tensions, Pittsburgh’s Black residents knew that calling the mostly white police force for help meant risking a slower response, at best, and police violence or arrest, at worst.

So the people of the predominantly Black Hill District created their own ambulance service. Local civil rights organization Freedom House recruited unemployed locals, including people with criminal records and Vietnam War vets, for 32 weeks of medical training on how to respond in emergencies. This cohort eventually became the country’s first “first responders,” and the revolutionary program served as the blueprint for the federal government’s Emergency Medical Services training.

Nearly sixty years later, there are still plenty of reasons to avoid calling law enforcement. Fort Worth police killed Atatiana Jefferson in her own home, firing through her window after a neighbor called to report that her front door was open. Christian Glass was killed by Colorado police after he called them for help getting his car out of the dirt road where it was stuck. And ICE agent Christian Castro was arrested for shooting a Venezuelan man through a home’s front door during ICE raids in Minnesota. In 2025 alone, police killed 1,317 people in the U.S. There were only six days that year when they didn’t kill someone. Even when there's no violence, police encounters can escalate into unnecessary arrests.

Whatever your relationship to police, it’s hard to deny that calling law enforcement is a high‑stakes proposition. However, the vast majority of 911 calls are about comparatively trivial “disorder” type concerns like noise complaints and loitering, or about things that police are not equipped to handle, like medical care or mental health crises.

That is why everyday people are doing the life-saving work of giving people fewer reasons to call law enforcement. Oakland residents Sharena Thomas and Lesley Phillips founded People's Community Medics in 2011, echoing Pittsburgh's Freedom House model. The effort trained locals to deliver first aid and trauma care on the spot in response to the fact that police responding to 911 calls would often temporarily block off the area, even to EMTs, as people bled out and remained untreated.

Other efforts organize communities around explicit commitments not to call law enforcement. The Florida organization Dream Defenders is helping people create ICE-Free Zones in their community by establishing areas where everyone agrees ICE is not welcome in a personal or professional capacity. And the American Friends Service Committee's pledge to "Think Twice Before Calling Police" invites people to ask themselves certain questions before deciding whether a call to cops is really necessary.

Free Somebody

You can do this. Here's how.

Got 5 minutes?

Get the word out. Print “The 4 Steps To Take Before Contacting The Police.” Put it on your fridge. Carry it on you. Give it out to family, friends, and community members. Post it in your group chats and your neighborhood chats.Share the resources. Many cities have alternatives to 911, like 311 or ways to call trained, non-police crisis responders. Don’t Call The Police is an online directory of these resources, organized by city. Use it and direct the people you know there, too. Cut the camera. Even if you’re not calling the cops, your doorbell camera might be. Doorbell cams are a powerful surveillance tool for law enforcement who can sometimes access your footage without your consent. Buying one? Look for local storage and no cloud hosting to minimize third-party surveillance. Already have one? Consider turning on end-to-end encryption.

Got more time?

Learn the workarounds. Gather some family or friends to discuss the Mayday Collective’s “12 Things To Do Instead Of Calling The Cops" which offers practical solutions in situations where police are often called (like, if you need to report something as stolen for insurance purposes, go to the police station instead of inviting police into your neighborhood). Brainstorm other scenarios and solutions relevant to your life.For those who want to take it further, United Against Police Terror San Diego offers an entire syllabus of readings, guides and toolkits.