New York City is slowly expanding the reach of its B-HEARD pilot program, which launched in 2021 to provide a non-police response to mental health crisis calls and which advocates have said is necessary to reduce incidents of police violence.
But B-HEARD still handles just a fraction of the mental health crisis calls to 911 in the areas where it operates, according to the latest city data.
B-HEARD teams expanded to cover 25 of the city’s 77 police precincts and collectively responded to more than 5,000 mental health calls in the first half of 2023. That was up from about 2,000 calls during the previous six months, data released Wednesday shows.
The teams’ responses only accounted for about a quarter of all mental health calls to 911 in participating precincts, up from 16%.
Meanwhile, mental health advocates continue to push for a more comprehensive non-police response in the city.
“What we are looking for is really the removal of the police in all but the rarest of circumstances,” said Ruth Lowenkron, an attorney with the nonprofit organization New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.
Lowenkron is part of a coalition of advocates pushing for state legislation, known as Daniel’s Law, that aims to further remove police from interactions with people having mental health crises, including by allowing callers to access special response teams by calling a number other than 911.
B-HEARD now operates in 31 precincts across the city. But data on the program is released on a lag, and the city hasn’t yet distributed information about calls in the second half of 2023 or the start of 2024.
B-HEARD teams include social workers and emergency medical technicians. The teams are designed to de-escalate situations where someone may be exhibiting signs of a mental health or substance issue, or suicidal ideation, according to an official description of the program.
The teams can provide physical and mental health assessments and either take people to hospitals or provide…
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