At least 42 unhinged people were taken for psychiatric evaluations against their will during the first month of Mayor Eric Adams’ public-safety focused mental health program, city officials revealed Monday.
The involuntary transports were made in December by outreach workers assigned to the city’s Mobile Crisis Teams, Jamie Neckles, acting assistant commissioner of the Bureau of Mental Health testified during a City Council oversight hearing.
Although Adams’ order primarily targets mentally ill homeless people who are unable to care for themselves, it’s unclear how many of those swept up were actually homeless.
That’s because officials didn’t say where the people were when they were taken away.
Neckles also said that 24 Mobile Crisis Teams “are mostly serving people who are housed, not homeless or on the subway.”
Adams announced in November that cops and other city workers would start immediately hospitalizing people who appeared to be suffering from “severe and untreated mental illness.”
The mayor said he was responding to “a moral obligation to help get them the treatment and care they need.”
NYPD Chief of Training Juanita Holmes said at a City Council oversight hearing that over 87% of patrol officers have been trained to identify mentally ill people who pose “a danger to themselves or others” or aren’t “capable of self-care.” Gregory P. MangoHis “Involuntary Removal Directive” was challenged in court by a group of activists, including New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, who argued that it would violate the Americans with Disabilities Act and the city Human Rights Law.
But Manhattan federal Judge Paul Crotty last week denied the plaintiffs’ motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against Adams’ program, CNN reported.
During Monday’s council hearing, NYPD Chief of Training Juanita Holmes said that more than 87% of the department’s patrol officers have been trained to identify mentally ill people who pose “a danger to themselves or others” or aren’t “capable of self-care.”
Adams said his program is part of a “moral obligation” to get mentally ill people the treatment they need. Matthew McDermottThose trained include 89% of the cops assigned to the NYPD’s Transit Bureau, which oversees the city’s vast subway system, she said.
Holmes said the training “is given at roll call” and involves a 25-minute lecture and a video presentation that “ensures compliance.”
