Studies show that up to half of people who become victims of police violence have a disability – and overwhelmingly, a mental health disability. Tragically, for many New Yorkers, 911 has become the only option for people looking for mental health crisis intervention. And police often arrive at the scene armed with deadly weapons, and a total inability to deescalate the personal crises they are so often assigned to handle. The results are devastating.

In March 2020, Daniel Prude was experiencing an acute mental health crisis when his family called 911 for help. He was naked in the street, and posed no risk to any other person. Yet, Rochester Police responded in force, handcuffed him, placed a hood over his head, and held him face down on the cold pavement until he stopped breathing. Daniel Prude was mocked and treated cruelly by officers with no understanding of his needs. Daniel Prude was a man experiencing an obvious mental health crisis, and he deserved care and dignity – but he was denied both. Instead, police killed him.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

New York legislators must do everything in their power to prevent what happened to Daniel Prude from happening again. To do this, we must end the role of police as a default response to people in crisis.

It’s clear that mental health crises require mental health expertise. New York must have transformative change if we are ever going to end our over-reliance on police. That means we need more than a bill that just creates a new agency, orders a study, or offers a new round of training for police. Those approaches just double down on failed strategies by pretending we can train cops into becoming mental health professionals.

We need policy change that shifts our whole vision of how our community responds to people in crisis. And it starts by treating mental health and substance use as public health issues – not

public safety threats. With the Prude family’s support and consent, there is a proposed bill known as “Daniel’s Law,” which holds the promise of a different way.

People who have experience with mental health, substance use, and disability set the rules for responding to mental health crises. They will make up a State Crisis Emergency Response council that develops training and rules for all calls to dispatch, and all responses to mental health emergencies. Municipal and regional councils will then submit plans to the State Council for approval. All councils must consist of a minimum of 51% peers (people with lived experience). These rules and trainings will be fully integrated into existing 911 , 988, 211 or other emergency dispatch services, existing EMT response, local mental health providers, and local police response.

Current state law allows police to intervene any time someone poses any “mental hygiene risk” to themselves – even when there is no public safety risk. Daniel’s law changes this, so that police can only respond to a situation when there’s a risk to another person’s safety. Non-police crisis response teams become first responders to mental health crises.

Daniel’s Law will create a statewide council of mental health experts, and the law requires each member to be dedicated to the goals of de-escalation, trauma-informed, culturally-competent care, and avoiding contacts with the criminal system. The transformative vision is baked into the council’s make-up. Some members must also have direct or peer lived experience with mental health, disability, or substance use disorder.

Daniel’s Law is a first step – it will fix state law so we can build a meaningful mental health response systems outside of the carceral system. But it’s not the end – we will all have to fight for funding and staffing for these units in every city and town in New York.

Local crisis response teams including peers and EMT’S will be trained to respond to people in crisis, deescalate situations, and connect people with the care they need. Daniel’s Law creates a system for those already practicing trauma-informed mental health care in their communities to serve as local responders.