New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams called for expanding non-police response efforts to mental health emergencies at a City Council oversight hearing today. The hearing convened several committees to focus on B-HEARD, an alternative response program which pairs mental health workers with paramedics/EMTs as a response team. Public Advocate Williams emphasized the importance of not relying simply on law enforcement in such emergencies, instead focusing on health professionals and peers, while highlighting several of the limitations the initiative currently faces.
“Many of the challenges that B-HEARD faces lie in inadequate staffing,” Public Advocate Williams noted. “There is a shortage of 911 operators who can appropriately triage the calls, leading to a default police response. It can be difficult to discern over the phone what is happening at the scene, and whether there is a risk of harm to the caller or to the responders… It is also imperative to ensure that 911 dispatchers are properly trained in how to effectively determine which calls can be sent to B-HEARD.”
B-HEARD reported last week that teams responded to 73% of eligible 911 calls in FY24, a significant increase from the previous year. The Public Advocate was “heartened” by this increase but cautioned “...Our goal should be for those teams to respond to every eligible call that comes in – Also note that when you count the quote on quote, ‘ineligible,’ that number drops very significantly to 30% and we have to look at the definitions of eligible and ineligible.”
This hearing comes days after a police shooting during a confrontation with a man struggling with mental health issues. The Public Advocate noted in his statement that “Mr. Mickles was failed by our system long before that shooting occurred.”
Public Advocate Williams emphasized the enormous discrepancy in resources for solutions like B-HEARD relative to the NYPD, and closed by saying “If we want an effective alternative to police responses to people in mental health crises, we must be meaningfully prioritizing resources for that response; otherwise, we are endangering not only those who need help but those who respond.”
The Public Advocate’s full comments as delivered are below. Video of the hearing is available here.
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