On Jan. 4, 2023, Officer Liam McMahon of the Cambridge Police Department shot and killed 20-year-old college student Sayed Faisal — the first fatal police shooting in the city in 20 years.

Only three years after the nation was rocked by the police killing of George Floyd, Faisal’s killing catalyzed a resurgence of anti-police protests in Cambridge as activists demanded department transparency, institutional reforms, and policing alternatives.

In response, CPD committed to a slate of reforms. In the last month, the department announced plans for a co-responder program, promised body cameras by next fiscal year, and continues to institute less-lethal tactics into its policing.

Some activists, however, have lost trust in the department entirely, and are advocating for non-police response alternatives.

As the community-based Holistic Emergency Alternative Response Team — which refuses to affiliate with CPD — struggles to secure a contract with the city, Cambridge is rolling out its own alternative: the Community Assistance Response and Engagement Team, which imagines itself as a partner to the department.

The heads of both teams have promised that they will complement each other, suggesting that two police alternatives is better than one.

But as CARE moves ahead while HEART lags behind, some advocates said they worry the former’s connection to CPD will prove ineffective in addressing the circumstances that led to Faisal’s death — and could compromise efforts to reimagine Cambridge’s approach to policing overall.

‘So Much Progress’

A month after Faisal’s death, in February 2023, CPD and Cambridge City Manager Yi-An Huang ’05 — buffeted by protests and demands from local activists — pledged reform. Huang promised to equip CPD with body cameras, fund an alternative emergency response team, and look into less-lethal weapons for CPD officers.

Weeks later, CPD commissioned the Police Executive Research Form to lead an independent, external review into a department.

Since then, PERF released two reports reviewing the department, both including extensive recommendations for the adoption of body cameras. After more than a year of promises and assurances that CPD was on track to implementing the technology, the department committed to adopting body-worn cameras in 2025.

“We’re going through this tragedy wanting to bring in all the resources we possibly can to do everything we possibly can to avoid something like this from happening again,” CPD commissioner Christine A. Elow said during a March meeting of the Cambridge City Council’s Public Safety Committee.

But despite efforts towards improvement, some Cambridge activists, scholars, and politicians say the reforms don’t go far enough.

Former Councilor Quinton Y. Zondervan said body cameras are insufficient to ensure safety and accountability.

“I personally do not support body cameras — and I voted against it as well — because the problem is that when we look at the data, there’s no positive impact,” he said. “Body cameras on police essentially confirm that we want them to continue to police as they currently do.”

“Body cameras don’t help anything, and they just cost more money and create additional bureaucracy,” he added.

Instead of the body-worn cameras, Zondervan — who served the Council when Faisal was shot and did not run for reelection in 2023 — said he would like to see disarm-based reforms from CPD.

“They need to disarm,” he said. “They need to shift their approach from going to war against people and justifying using weapons against them to caring about people and preventing violence.”

Following the PERF report, CPD also instituted additional training on the deployment of less-lethal launchers and has announced plans for a co-response program — in which a social worker will respond to mental health calls alongside the normally-dispatched Cambridge police.

Four Cambridge Police Department officers watched people protesting the shooting of Sayed Faisal from across the street in March 2023. By Ryan H. Doan-Nguyen

CPD spokesperson Robert Goulston wrote that the department continues to pursue “innovative ways” to promote accountability in the city’s “extremely complex and uncertain” policing environment.

“We have made so much progress on police reform by adding more layers of oversight, new processes, tools, and technology and strengthening what is already working,” he wrote.

But Party for Socialism and Liberation organizer Tahmid Rahman, who worked to organize protests following Faisal’s killing, said he has lost trust in an armed police force to ethically maintain public safety.

Instead, he said Cambridge needs “alternative measures” to keep the city safe.

“What we need to do is minimize police interactions with civilians, and instead, rely a lot more on community-based programs — and get to a point where we can confidently say, ‘We The People’ keep us safe,” he said.

‘Tools on the Toolbelt’

Even before Faisal’s killing, Cambridge had made concerted efforts to mobilize unarmed police alternatives in the city.

After George Floyd’s murder in 2020, Cambridge residents approached the Cambridge City Council with a proposal for an independent, community-based police alternative — rather than an organization within the city itself.

The proposal evolved into Cambridge HEART, which Zondervan developed alongside a group of residents.

At the same time, the Council passed a policy order asking then-city manager Louis A. DePasquale to investigate alternative policing options. DePasquale convened a task force, which proposed the creation of the Community Safety Department — the city’s official launching point for non-police response programs.

By January 2022, the Council was weighing both options — one, an internal city department that would work alongside CPD, and another, an independent community organization that refused to do so.

In March of 2023, councilors passed a policy order calling for Huang to fund HEART and negotiate a contract with the organization — launching a year of protracted, and ongoing, negotiations.

At the same time, Huang designated CSD as an independent department within the city. Last September, CSD hired a team of responders, officially forming the Community Assistance Response and Engagement team.

As HEART struggled for recognition and support, the city was swiftly moving forward with its internal option.

CARE plans to respond to 9-1-1 calls “very shortly,” according to CSD executive director Elizabeth Speakman. The team will respond to wellness checks and mental health calls with no medical or safety issues, alongside the needle pickups that began in late February.

The team will also respond to “unwanted person calls,” according to Speakman.

“The goal is to help them meet their needs and get to the root cause of what’s happening to them that they’re in this situation, rather than punishing them for probably something that has to do with poverty, or mental health, or substance use,” Speakman said.

Cambridge Police Officers Francis L. Gutoski and William Simmons, Jr., who are stationed in Central Square, said they brought the CARE team on a walk-a-long to introduce them to some of the residents and orient them to the area.

Gutoski said he believes CPD officers and CARE will rely on one another to provide the necessary services to Cambridge’s unhoused population.

“They’re going to lean on us, and we’re also going to lean on them,” he said.

A Cambridge Police car sits parked in front of the Robert W. Healy Public Safety Facility at 125 6th St. By Jina H. Choe

Simmons said that he and Gutoski are often relied on for problems in the community that they may not be best suited to respond to, including aiding unhoused people with mental health issues. He sees CARE as more “tools on the toolbelt” to provide services to whoever needs help.

While many Cambridge residents and activists see CARE as a step in the right direction, others are concerned with the team’s underlying connection to the police force.

Boston University professor Spencer Piston said he does not believe the CARE team will be effective in mitigating police killings — especially in cases like Faisal’s — as dispatchers will not send the CARE responders to situations in which a weapon is present.

“The problem is the team that they’re creating, this Community Safety Department, would not have responded to Sayed Faisal’s case,” he said. “Because he was holding — supposedly, police claim — he was holding a weapon, any so-called alternative to policing run by the city government would go out the window,” Piston said.

Jeremy C. Warnick, a spokesperson for the city, said that the policy’s intention is to keep the unarmed responders safe from harm.

“Employee safety is of the utmost importance to the City,” Warnick wrote in a statement to The Crimson. “Ensuring a safe work environment not only protects employees but also contributes to the overall well-being of the community.”

‘A Different Path’

As CARE begins to roll out its services in Cambridge, HEART offers residents non-emergency support through an email hotline. The organization — which is currently scrambling to find a new home base — also provides longer-term support for residents struggling with mental health, housing, or financial problems.

However, since the organization’s founding — and despite the Council’s request in March 2023 to provide city support for the group — HEART has continued to struggle to receive a contract with the city.

Zondervan said that he believes HEART was “strung along” by the city, which then set up the CSD’s “competing program.”

“It’s fine for both programs to exist, and I hope that they will both be extremely successful,” Zondervan said. “But there’s an alternative universe where the city could have embraced HEART from the beginning, and funded them and supported them much more extensively so that they could be assisting our residents.”

HEART co-director Corinne Espinoza said the organization currently employs nine staff members and works with a network of volunteers to provide a community-based policing alternative.

Espinoza added that HEART’s commitment to “self-determination” distinguishes the group from other alternatives. As an independent organization, HEART is committed to not involving law enforcement or government agencies unless directly requested to do so by the person needing assistance.

“There are always going to be some people who will never call the city, regardless of how dire their situation is,” Espinoza said. “We’re a really good choice for that person.”

Zondervan said that the organization provides a necessary service that isn’t provided by the city.

“The reality is that some people will not be served by those other programs, either because they don’t want to interact with the city government so directly, or because the government simply is unable to help them,” he said.

Speakman objected to the notion that there needs to be a choice between CARE and HEART. She said she looks forward to working with HEART to provide more resources for Cambridge residents.

“This is not a competition of who we should be doing this instead of anyone else,” she said. “It’s really the option for the opportunity for complimentary services.”

Espinosa agreed that both CARE and HEART can work together to support the Cambridge community and said that “there’s room for both organizations” in Cambridge.

“There’s plenty of people struggling, unfortunately, who will need a different path, and so making sure that we’re providing as many options for people to find the right path as possible,” Speakman said. “That’s just one of the really beautiful things about Cambridge.”

—Staff writer Sally E. Edwards can be reached at sally.edwards@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @sallyedwards04 or on Threads @sally_edwards06.

—Staff writer Asher J. Montgomery can be reached at asher.montgomery@thecrimson.com Follow her on X @asherjmont or on Threads @asher_montgomery.