Teams of mental health and social workers will be deployed in Central Brooklyn as first responders to 911 calls where someone is in emotional distress, Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday.
The announcement was made during Hizzoner’s executive budget unveiling speech at the Kings Theatre, where he said his proposal would include $55 million to expand the Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division (B-HEARD) program — which began as a pilot in Harlem and was expanded to Washington Heights and parts of the South Bronx earlier this year — to Central Brooklyn, eastern Queens, and the rest of the South Bronx.
“Not every call needs the police,” Adams said in his Tuesday speech. “B-HEARD teams deescalate tense situations and connect people in crisis to the care they need.”
The City Council had requested a slightly higher allocation, about $61 million, for the program in its budget response, but the mayor’s announcement was well-received by members of the political class in the audience at his speech.
