City's mental health crisis response program falling short

Comptroller finds more than one-third of calls received police response instead

The city program that dispatches behavioral health teams instead of police in response to residents’ mental health emergencies is failing to live up to its mission, a recent audit from the city comptroller’s office found.

But among the 37,113 calls determined to be eligible for a Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division, or B-HEARD, response team between Fiscal Years 2022 and 2024, more than one-third of calls — 13,042, or 35 percent — did not receive B-HEARD services and instead received a traditional police response, according to the comptroller’s office. In total, 96,291 mental health calls were made during this period, of which 60 percent were ineligible for B-HEARD services.