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City Launches Pilot to Have EMS Take Lead on Mental-Illness Calls

By BOB HENNELLY
Posted 11/16/20

Emergency Medical Technicians accompanied by mental-health professionals will respond to 911 calls involving emotionally disturbed persons that until now have been handled by police in two still-to-be-determined police precincts, the de Blasio administration announced Nov. 10.

Those calls have almost doubled over the last decade, going up in every precinct, according to the The City website. Since 2016, in at least 14 instances, civilians wound up being killed by the responding police officers.

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