In 2020, in response to calls for police reform following the murder of George Floyd in the United States and a series of similar incidents in Toronto such as the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet,[1] Toronto City Council considered a series of motions aimed at reforming policing and crisis response in the city.

The city would explore how duties currently assigned to sworn officers would be assumed by "alternative models of community safety response" to incidents where neither violence nor weapons are at issue.

[2] City staff presented a report to the Executive Committee on January 27, 2021,[4][5] which recommended the creation of a community crisis support service pilot program.

[8] Denise Campbell, the division's executive director indicated in April that some issues her team were considering included integration with 9-1-1 and 2-1-1 call centres, consultation with community and police, and the mandate of the program itself.

Three of the services areas were divided geographically, another pilot program was creating a team aimed at serving Indigenous communities.

[11] In January 2023, a six month evaluation report conducted between March 31 to September 30, 2022, by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) found that the program had managed to resolve 78 per cent of 1,530 calls received from 9-1-1 without police involvement.

[14] In a statement, Mayor John Tory described the program as a "success",[13] and called on the Ontario and federal governments to make investments in mental health.

Mayor Olivia Chow expressed her support in a statement, describing TCCS as the "fourth municipal emergency response service", noting that it has "successfully established itself as a trusted crisis response option for Torontonians" and has "strengthened confidence in community safety efforts and led to better outcomes for Indigenous, Black, racialized and 2SLGBTQ+ communities".