Mayor Mamdani seems to have picked the right person, Ayesha Delany-Brumsey, to run his new Office of Community Safety, provided her focus and the focus of the office is on the needs of those suffering from mental illness and not about policing. That is exactly what Delany-Brumsey did in her time at Fountain House, a leading nonprofit which uses the successful clubhouse model for such folks.
What’s wrong with the city’s broken mental health system has nothing to do with the NYPD, despite the narrative pushed by Mamdani in his campaign last year, part of his overfall negative critique of the cops. But the sad but simple reality is that New York, like other cities and states over the decades, have left the mentally ill to languish in jails, on streets, in nursing homes and on subways without adequate care or support. There is no mystery here. There is little debate.
The tragedy started when large state mental institutions, where abuse and neglect had become too common, were shut down. The hospitals were to be replaced by a more humane and effective model: Community-based care that combined crisis management, outpatient services and logistical support. Sounds great, but it didn’t happen.
The evidence is clear on the streets and subways of New York.
It’s not about policing; it never was. The cops don’t want to deal with EDPs (Emotionally Disturbed Persons). They want to prevent crime and catch criminals, of which they do a spectacular job, as the crime stats under Commissioner Jessie Tish and Chief of Department Mike LiPetri for the first four months of the year keep going down and they prepare for the typical increase during the hot months of summer. That’s what the cops want to do.
If Mamdani wants to solve the real problem, his new Office of Community Safety needs to actually fix the problem. It’s politically palatable to talk about criminalizing mental health problems and over policing. But it’s a red herring. The NYPD doesn’t want to be managing mental health crises any more than a mentally ill person in crisis wants an armed cop showing up. But that’s the system we’ve built — a system that responds when it’s too late, when lives are at risk.
Because the mentally ill have been left by the city and state to fend for themselves (often not taking their antipsychotic medicine), it falls to the cops to step in when there’s a problem. The small B-HEARD Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division of the city’s public hospitals does instead that in a few areas of the city, dispatching teams of social workers and health professionals. And, in a good sign, Delany-Brumsey’s most recent job was running B-HEARD.
Ramp up B-HEARD, get it working in every part of the city, 24 hours a day. Of course, sometimes there is a threat of violence and then the cops have to be involved. No one, including the NYPD, wants to criminalize the mentally ill. But B-HEARD is only why something goes wrong and a call for help goes out.
Building the promised by never delivered community-based comprehensive care for the mentally ill is a lot tougher. That’s the real answer. And that’s why the advocates and the former advocate now living in Gracie Mansion have to start doing the hard work of solving the problem and stop the easy default of blaming the cops.