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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by William Juhn, Senior Staff Attorney at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI)
9:37:06
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William Juhn, a senior staff attorney at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, testifies about concerns regarding the Mayor's Voluntary Removal Program and the need for non-police responses to mental health crisis calls. He emphasizes the importance of community-based mental health services and the removal of police from mental health crisis responses.
- Criticizes the Mayor's Voluntary Removal Program for allowing untrained police officers to detain individuals with mental disabilities
- Highlights that 20 individuals in mental health crisis were killed by police in New York City over the past nine years, with 85% being people of color
- Advocates for a non-police peer-led system for responding to mental health crisis calls, such as the proposal developed by CCITNYC
William Juhn
9:37:06
Good evening, chair Salaam.
9:37:07
My name is William John.
9:37:08
I'm a senior staff attorney in New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.
9:37:11
Thank you for this opportunity to testify today.
9:37:14
I'd like to talk about two things today.
9:37:16
First, the Mayor's Voluntary Removal Program allows untrained police officer who have no expertise or with individuals with mental disabilities to detain them by force and remove them to a psychiatric hospital against their will, solely because the officer believes the individual has a mental disability.
9:37:35
We do not in any way support the failed policies of our broken mental healthcare system that leaves at risk individuals in unacceptable states of distress and deterioration.
9:37:47
But the best way of preventing risk to individuals with serious mental illness is through the expansion of the evidence based and community based mental health services.
9:37:56
Second, we need to stop police violence and mental health crisis calls.
9:37:59
In the past nine years alone, twenty individuals were killed by police while in mental health crisis in New York City, and eighty eighty five percent of them were black or other people of color.
9:38:10
We already know that peers and trained mental health professionals are best equipped to de escalate crisis and connect individuals to care.
9:38:19
Unfortunately, the city's current programs, such as the BeHerD program, does not meet this goal.
9:38:25
The BEHER the BEHER still authorizes extensive police involvement, is likely to continue the violent responses by the NYPD.
9:38:34
In fiscal year 2024, for example, more than seventy percent of all mental health calls in the Be Her pilot areas were still directed to the NYPD.
9:38:44
The city must remove police entirely from the equation.
9:38:47
For example, CCITNYC is a coalition of over 80 New York City organizations and has already developed such proposal in which teams of trained peers and EMTs who are independent of the city government would respond to mental health crisis.
9:39:03
We therefore urge the council to support a truly non police peerless system in response to mental health crisis calls.
9:39:10
Thank you very much.