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New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s plan to have social workers respond to 911 calls instead of police has already been operating for four years in some city neighborhoods, with a recent audit casting “serious doubts” on the program’s effectiveness.
The Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division (B-HEARD) pilot program was launched in 2021, but a city comptroller report from May found that more than 60% of calls were deemed ineligible for a B-HEARD response.
Meanwhile, 35% of calls deemed eligible did not receive program services for reasons unknown because the Mayor’s Office of Community Mental Health — which administers the program — does not track that information…