Monday, September 28, 2026 / Eugene / Springfield
A new CAHOOTS study puts direct police-call diversion at 18%
The researchers estimate 23% when reductions consistent with prevention are included, and 50% inside the smaller pool of calls either CAHOOTS or police could handle.
A new peer-reviewed study gives Eugene's long-running CAHOOTS program a more careful set of diversion numbers than the familiar 3% to 8% estimate. Using Eugene dispatch records from 2016 through 2021, University of Oregon researchers estimate that CAHOOTS directly replaced police response on 18% of calls that would otherwise have gone to police.
The study does not treat every CAHOOTS response as a police call saved. Its second measure rises to 23% by including reductions in police-handled calls that the researchers say are consistent with prevention. A third measure asks a different question: within the narrower set of calls that either police or CAHOOTS could plausibly handle, CAHOOTS took 50%.
Those percentages are not interchangeable. The 18% figure is the cleanest estimate of direct substitution; 23% adds a likely prevention effect; 50% describes how work was divided inside overlapping duties. The distinction matters for local decisions about staffing and emergency response because it replaces one fuzzy headline number with three measures tied to different policy questions.
CAHOOTS no longer operates in Eugene after city funding ended in 2025, though service continues in Springfield. The study documents the earlier Eugene system; it does not announce a new funding decision or a return of service.
Field notes
What changed: Science Advances published a new analysis estimating CAHOOTS' direct police-call substitution at 18%, prevention-adjusted diversion at 23% and overlapping-mandate share at 50%.
Why it matters: Local debates about alternative crisis response have often relied on incompatible diversion estimates. The study supplies explicit definitions and a reproducible method for comparing police and mobile-crisis workloads.
Who may be affected: Eugene and Springfield residents, people needing behavioral-health crisis response, emergency dispatchers, police, crisis workers and local officials weighing future service models.