Harlem Mental Health Policing Pilot Growing After Promising Start

HARLEM, NY — The city says it will expand a pilot program that removed police officers from mental health crisis calls in Harlem after it showed encouraging results — though cops have hardly stepped back entirely, according to newly released data.

First announced in February, the Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division (B-HEARD) launched in June in the 25th, 28th and 32nd police precincts — covering Central and East Harlem.

The city chose Harlem because those three precincts saw 7,400 mental health-related 911 calls last year — the most in the city, officials said. Its launch came amid calls for police reform and scrutiny over the NYPD's role in responding to mental health calls, which have sometimes resulted in violent outcomes.

Under the program, three-person teams composed of two paramedics and a social worker were dispatched to mental health emergencies, overseen by the FDNY and Health + Hospitals rather than police.

On Thursday, the city revealed data from the first month, showing both the promise and the limits of the program.

In June, B-HEARD teams responded to just 20 percent of mental health calls in Harlem — 107 out of 532 total incidents. The rest were handled by police and EMTs, as they would have been before.

In those 80 percent of cases, 911 dispatchers believed the person in crisis was a threat to themselves or others, and the B-HEARD teams were only supposed to respond to non-threatening calls, as THE CITY reported.

In another 31 cases, police responded to calls assigned to B-HEARD because the EMT/social worker teams were busy responding to other incidents, the city said.

When B-HEARD teams did respond to 911 calls, 95 percent of the people they reached accepted help, the city said. That's higher than the typical 82 percent for police/EMS teams.

The pilot also appears to be cutting down unnecessary hospitalizations, according to the city. About 50 percent of people treated by paramedic/social worker teams were hospitalized, compared to 82 percent under the old model.

A quarter of people reached by B-HEARD teams were treated where they were through counseling, de-escalation or a referral to a local clinic, while 20 percent were taken to a non-hospital care location.

The teams only requested NYPD backup seven times, a sign that they have not been put in danger, the city says. Meanwhile, the NYPD have themselves requested backup from B-HEARD on 14 occasions after officers found there was no imminent danger.

Expansion planned

In the coming months, 911 dispatchers will route 50 percent of all mental health calls in the three Harlem precincts to B-HEARD teams, up from the current rate of 25 percent, as the program continues to grow.

Harlem has been at the forefront of the citywide discussion over the NYPD's role in responding to mental health calls, which ramped up last summer amid the protests that followed the killing of George Floyd.

For years, the neighborhood has been plagued by opioid use and residents have complained about mental health crises playing out on neighborhood streets. In January, footage of police officers taking an impaired man into custody in East Harlem circulated widely on social media, reigniting the debate over how law enforcement treats people who are mentally ill.

In February, East Harlem Councilmember Diana Ayala introduced a bill in the City Council that would fully eliminate the NYPD's role in mental health calls.

Though that step has not been taken, another component of the bill — the proposal to create an Office of Community Mental Health — was fulfilled when Mayor Bill de Blasio created the office through an executive order in April. That office, in fact, is charged with running the B-HEARD program.

Related coverage:

• Police Removed From Harlem Mental Health Calls In New Program
• East Harlem Council Rep Wants Police Out Of Mental Health Calls
• Man's Arrest In East Harlem Raises Questions About Policing
• Harlem Council Rep Clashes With Community Board Over NYPD Funding