The New York City Council is flexing its oversight powers over a mental health response program that Mayor Zohran Mamdani has made a key part of his new approach to changing how the city handles 911 calls involving people in mental distress.
The Council on Thursday passed legislation requiring the Mamdani administration to submit regular performance reports on the Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division, also known as B-HEARD. The nearly 5-year-old program sends mental health professionals and EMTs to certain mental health emergencies instead of police.
During the campaign, Mamdani cited B-HEARD as a way to prevent tragic incidents where police have used force or even killed people in the throes of mental health crises. But the program has failed to respond to more than one-third of eligible mental health calls, according to a city comptroller audit last year, and has been criticized for a lack of transparency and sufficient data collection.
“Data informs policy,” said Councilmember Lynn Schulmann, who introduced the bill that received near unanimous approval.
The legislation, which the mayor has yet to sign, requires the administration to include a host of metrics, including call volume, response times and outcomes such as treatment, hospitalization, arrest or involuntary removal. It also requires metrics on use-of-force incidents, demographic information and call locations by precinct and borough.
The first report will be due on June 1, 2027, followed by regular updates every six months. The data could become the first glimpse into how far Mamdani has progressed with developing a new mental health response strategy.
Mamdani initially pledged to create a new public safety agency with $1 billion in funding that would have focused on mental health response and the role of police response. But last month, he announced a scaled-back Mayoral Office of Community Safety that will start with $260 million.
Brian Stettin, a former senior adviser on mental health issues, said he was generally in favor of City Hall releasing more information, but that lengthy requests for data can sometimes be burdensome and “counterproductive.”
“There is a cost to making people spend time producing data,” Stettin said.
The mayor’s office did not immediately comment on the newly passed bill. But Schulman said the Council did not hear any objections from the mayor’s office when they were working on the legislation.
“I wouldn’t characterize it as holding the mayor’s feet to the fire,” she added. “We’re trying to get a system where we can get help for people with mental health problems.”
