City Councilmembers proposed a new law Thursday to require the city to staff every police precinct with a licensed social worker, part of an effort to expand the city’s non-police response to mental health emergencies and crime.
Council members Erik Bottcher, who represents parts of Midtown, and Yusef Salaam, who represents East Harlem, introduced the bill to address underlying reasons why people commit crimes, such as mental health or substance use issues. There are no police precincts that currently have a social worker located onsite, Bottcher said.
Bottcher said that he has seen individuals cycle through the precinct in his district for petty crimes, with little investigation into why those individuals continue to offend. The lawmakers’ goal is to staff precincts with behavioral health clinicians who can connect people with social services or health care, something that police officers don’t often do, Bottcher said.
“Police aren’t trained to do that,” Bottcher told Crain’s. “It’s not their job, nor should it be.”
If passed, the law would mandate that the city health department staff all 77 police precincts with a licensed social worker. The clinicians would be required to report to precincts 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but they would be employed by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Bottcher said employing clinicians from the health department would ensure a non-police response to people with mental health challenges.
The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment on the proposal from Crain’s on Thursday.
The lawmakers announced the bill around a month after the high-profile fatal police shooting of Win Rozario, a 19-year-old from Ozone Park who was shot after he called 911 in mental distress. The police officers who responded to the call shot Rozario less than three minutes after they arrived at his home, officer-worn body camera footage shows, sparking renewed outcry over how law enforcement responds to mental health-related emergencies.
Salaam, who chairs the Council’s committee on public safety, said that the circumstances could have been different if a social worker, not officers, led the response to Rozario’s 911 call. “Win Rozario would have been alive today.”
The new bill does not include language to require social workers to respond to mental health-related 911 calls, but it is something that the lawmakers are open to discussing, Bottcher said. The city currently has co-response teams that are staffed with police officers and clinicians employed by the health department, but those teams respond before or after crises, not during a 911 emergency.
New York does not have teams of social workers and police officers that currently respond to 911 calls.
Amanda D'Ambrosio , 2024-05-17 11:33:06
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