Press Room

“I feel the same disbelief and indignation that I know many New Yorkers feel, upset that this is where our city is in this moment. This is a painful time, and the looming unknowns and uncertainties only add to the confusion and chaos at City Hall in an untenable situation. Justice presumes innocence until proven guilty, at the same time, these charges are even more sweeping and severe than imagined. In the face of this evidence, it is not enough to deflect blame and deny responsibility.

“It is federal officials’ obligation to prove their case, it is the mayor’s obligation to prove to New Yorkers that there is a real plan and path to govern the city effectively and regain trust, and his time to show that plan is rapidly running out. 

“As the Public Advocate, my role is to fight for the transparency, accountability, and governance that New Yorkers deserve. In a moment of intense turmoil, I am committed to working with my fellow elected officials and the many thousands of incredibly dedicated public servants to ensure our city continues to operate in any eventuality.”

New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams called for expanding non-police response efforts to mental health emergencies at a City Council oversight hearing today. The hearing convened several committees to focus on B-HEARD, an alternative response program which pairs mental health workers with paramedics/EMTs as a response team. Public Advocate Williams emphasized the importance of not relying simply on law enforcement in such emergencies, instead focusing on health professionals and peers, while highlighting several of the limitations the initiative currently faces.

“Many of the challenges that B-HEARD faces lie in inadequate staffing,” Public Advocate Williams noted. “There is a shortage of 911 operators who can appropriately triage the calls, leading to a default police response. It can be difficult to discern over the phone what is happening at the scene, and whether there is a risk of harm to the caller or to the responders… It is also imperative to ensure that 911 dispatchers are properly trained in how to effectively determine which calls can be sent to B-HEARD.”

B-HEARD reported last week that teams responded to 73% of eligible 911 calls in FY24, a significant increase from the previous year. The Public Advocate was “heartened” by this increase but cautioned “...Our goal should be for those teams to respond to every eligible call that comes in – Also note that when you count the quote on quote, ‘ineligible,’ that number drops very significantly to 30% and we have to look at the definitions of eligible and ineligible.”

This hearing comes days after a police shooting during a confrontation with a man struggling with mental health issues. The Public Advocate noted in his statement that “Mr. Mickles was failed by our system long before that shooting occurred.”

Public Advocate Williams emphasized the enormous discrepancy in resources for solutions like B-HEARD relative to the NYPD, and closed by saying “If we want an effective alternative to police responses to people in mental health crises, we must be meaningfully prioritizing resources for that response; otherwise, we are endangering not only those who need help but those who respond.”

The Public Advocate’s full comments as delivered are below. Video of the hearing is available here.  

STATEMENT OF PUBLIC ADVOCATE JUMAANE D. WILLIAMS TO THE NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL HEALTH COMMITTEE JOINT WITH COMMITTEE ON MENTAL HEALTH, DISABILITIES AND ADDICTION, PUBLIC SAFETY, HOSPITALS, AND FIRE AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT SEPTEMBER 23, 2024  

Peace and blessings everyone, Happy Monday, Good morning again.

My name is Jumaane D. Williams, and I am the Public Advocate for the City of New York. Thank you to Chairs Lee, Salaam, Narcisse, and Ariola and the members of the Committees on Mental Health, Disabilities and Addiction; Public Safety; Hospitals; and Fire and Emergency Management for holding this hearing today.

Each year, the NYPD responds to approximately 200,000 calls related to people experiencing a mental health crisis. Despite most often being the first responders, we know that our police are not the best equipped to safely and effectively handle these calls. Additionally, officers have also themselves expressed that they do not want to be responding to these calls. When law enforcement respond to people in mental health crises, those who need help are often subject to use of force, arrest, incarceration, and, at times, unfortunately, even death.

In light of tragedies where people in mental health crisis are killed by law enforcement, municipalities across the country have implemented various alternative response models. In 2021, New York City launched the Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division, or B-HEARD. B-HEARD teams are FDNY EMTs or paramedics teamed with a mental health professional from Health + Hospitals. These teams operate 16 hours a day, seven days a week, in 31 precincts (out of 77 total precincts). 

It has been heartening to hear that the number of 911 calls that B-HEARD responds to is increasing. Responds to 73% of all eligible mental health calls in FY24. But our goal should be for those teams to respond to every eligible call that comes in – Also note that when you count the quote on quote, ‘ineligible,’ that number drops very significantly to 30% and we have to look at the definitions of eligible and ineligible. Though the number of 911 calls that B-HEARD responds to is increasing, they still only responded to just over half of eligible calls and a quarter of all 911 calls in the first half of 2023.

Many of the challenges that B-HEARD faces lie in inadequate staffing. There is a shortage of 911 operators who can appropriately triage the calls, leading to a default police response. It can be difficult to discern over the phone what is happening at the scene, and whether there is a risk of harm to the caller or to the responders. The city is hiring more 911 staff and allowing B-HEARD teams to join or take over the response to some calls that were initially routed to the NYPD or EMS, but we do not have data on how often the NYPD or EMS calls in B-HEARD to assist on a call. 

It is also imperative to ensure that 911 dispatchers are properly trained in how to effectively determine which calls can be sent to B-HEARD. Dispatch training must be improved to incorporate dispatching for mental health crises through ways such as a mental health solution tree that will branch off into separate dispatching categories for various responses. Mental health training must be conducted regularly to ensure calls are being appropriately dispatched to the right teams. We can also learn from models in other cities: in Chicago, dispatchers are regularly updated on the outcomes of calls directed to their Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement teams, and other cities have invited dispatchers on ride-alongs to see teams in action, increasing dispatchers’ confidence in these teams.

Staffing of the B-HEARD teams themselves is also an issue. Currently, the teams only operate 16 hours per day, and calls that are determined to be eligible for a B-HEARD response may go to police or traditional EMS anyway, because a B-HEARD team isn’t available. It is understandable that B-HEARD responses may take much longer than a typical police response, as de-escalation and determining what an individual in crisis needs takes time. I just want to point out that shouting at someone to put something down is not a de-escalation tactic. These calls can also be more challenging than a non-mental health call to EMS; we should be incentivizing EMS workers and paramedics to join B-HEARD teams and compensating them fairly for the work that they are doing. The city should also be allocating funding directly to H+H to hire social workers and mental health professionals, also peers, for B-HEARD teams. While the city has not detailed what a citywide B-HEARD program would look like, if  the program scaled up staffing at the same proportion it had to serve 25 precincts, that would mean just 280 people for all of the city’s 77 precincts, compared to 35,000 NYPD officers. If we want an effective alternative to police responses to people in mental health crises, we must be meaningfully prioritizing resources for that response; otherwise, we are endangering not only those who need help but those who respond.

And we have heard the names of Win Rozario, Kawaski Trawick, and Deborah Danner, Eleanor Bumpurs, I know Ms. Peggy Herrera is here, Mohamed Bah’s mother called to get help, and their children are no longer with us. I’d be remiss if I didn't mention the subway shooting – we do know that Mr. Mickles was failed by our system long before that shooting occurred. We are at a point in time where we all agree that we need to do more with mental health, and I hope we have the courage to actually put the system in place so we don’t have to have any more people added to those names. 

Thank you.

"This horrifying video, which took a week to release, was years of failure in the making. Years of inadequate resources for mental health support. Years of building systems and responses that criminalize issues of poverty and mental health. Years of flooding the subway with wave after wave of law enforcement, and setting their focus on fare evasion.

“Leadership from our mayor was needed to address this tragedy and instead, he commended these officers for showing 'restraint.' He continues to fail when leadership is desperately needed and should be utterly ashamed of those comments. Our police are often asked to do too much in difficult conditions. They need leaders who will be clear when something clearly went wrong. This was blatant disregard for the life of this community, and officers growing ‘impatient’ is not a valid reason to use deadly force.

“Four people shot, one a fellow officer, one an innocent bystander who may never recover. Not a single shot needed to be fired at the moment officers fired into a train with people in it. I can only think of what our collective horror would be in a wealthier, whiter population and call us to that same outrage and purpose – to not only improve our tools and trainings for de-escalation, but fundamentally examine and shift the public safety approach that led to preventable violence.

“Lastly, if the mayor and NYPD officials are willing to deliberately misinform New Yorkers about body camera footage before it's made public, how can we ask New Yorkers to trust this administration now that the video is released and truth is exposed.”

Amid new reporting on widespread sexual abuse within city jails, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams this week called for an independent investigation of the allegations and ultimately, accountability and change to prevent future harm. At a public meeting of the Board of Correction on Tuesday, he highlighted the conduct – allegations of harassment, sexual assault, and rape – the culture that allows for such abuse, and the failure of the city to act on reported cases. He emphasized the danger that this status quo perpetuates for everyone within our jails. 

“The fact that the mayor has not unequivocally called for an investigation, or no one in this administration has that I’m aware of, into the allegations made against currently employed officers is extremely troubling….” testified Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams.”...Sexual assault is never part of a person’s sentence, and we have a legal and moral obligation to protect people in custody from abuse.”

An analysis published recently found that almost 60% of the lawsuits filed under the Adult Survivors Act were filed against the NYC Department of Correction, suggesting the rampant abuse within the department. Such allegations spanned for nearly fifty years, and continued until as recently as last year. Under the current administration alone, about 30 of the individuals who filed lawsuits said they were sexually abused at Rikers within the past five years. At least five guards have been named in lawsuits alleging sexual abuse and assault who are still currently employed by DOC, and none of the guards have faced any disciplinary actions. 

“This is unacceptable, unconscionable, and the city must take swift action to ensure that nobody experiences sexual harassment or assault or rape, in our jails,” the Public Advocate stated at the public meeting. 

He emphasized the importance of independence in any investigation, noting that “In many cases, the DOC is tasked with investigating their own wrongdoing. It is unreasonable to  expect people who have experienced abuse to trust that the agency abusing them can effectively police itself, especially when reports of retaliation for filing complaints are so widespread. Incarcerated people have reported that they fear speaking up about abuse they experience because officers control every part of their lives, and can easily block their visits with family, extend their jail time, or respond with further violence. This makes it even more important that a thorough and independent investigation is conducted.”

Among the potential actions the city could take, the Public Advocate proposed that the mayor could convene a task force, hire an independent attorney or investigative firm, or ask for help from state and federal partners to further investigate.

The Public Advocate closed by stating the need to move swiftly in these matters, saying “The administration’s lack of urgency in addressing this, or any other problem impacting incarcerated New Yorkers is deeply concerning. We must continue speaking loudly about the culture of abuse on Rikers and not allow the mayor and DOC to sweep this under the rug.”  

The Public Advocate's full prepared testimony on this topic at the Board’s public meeting is below.

STATEMENT OF PUBLIC ADVOCATE JUMAANE D. WILLIAMS TO THE NEW YORK CITY BOARD OF CORRECTION SEPTEMBER 10, 2024  

Good afternoon, 

My name is Jumaane D. Williams, and I am the Public Advocate for the City of New York. Thank you to the Board of Correction for holding this meeting today and allowing me to speak about a serious and deeply troubling problem in our jails.

Before that, I cannot speak today without acknowledging the deaths of Anthony Jordan and Charizma Jones. Ms. Jones, who at only 23 years old, would have been eligible to be released this past week if she had survived her time in our city’s care. It’s critical the department does everything possible to ensure no one spends a moment longer than necessary in New York City jails. It’s up to all of this, including this Board to ensure they do so. 

In March of this year, an analysis published by Gothamist found that, of the 1,256 lawsuits filed under the Adult Survivors Act, 719—or almost 60 percent—were filed against the NYC Department of Correction. The allegations span decades, from 1976 to just last year, and are appalling, shocking, but, sadly, unsurprising. Not only do the suits detail allegations including harassment, sexual assault, and rape, but also that the department knew about the abuse and failed to act, thereby tacitly encouraging it to continue. And while the administration may shirk responsibility by pointing out that some of these alleged assaults occurred many years ago, roughly 30 of the people who filed lawsuits said they were sexually abused at Rikers within the past five years. Though much of this history precedes the current administration, not rooting out and addressing this known culture encourages this abuse and does nothing to prevent it in the future, endangering everyone in the city’s custody. This is unacceptable, unconscionable, and the city must take swift action to ensure that nobody experiences sexual harassment or assault in our jails.

The mayor is quick to point out that the majority of the incidents alleged in the recently filed lawsuits did not occur under his administration, and this is true. However, at least five guards named in lawsuits alleging sexual abuse and assault are currently employed by DOC, some of whom continue to work in the women’s jail. None of the guards have faced discipline for sexual misconduct. Mayor Adams and his administration has a responsibility to investigate these claims, and not just a moral one—federal guidelines laid out in the Prison Rape Elimination Act requires that allegations of sexual assault be immediately investigated. The fact that the mayor has not unequivocally called for an investigation into the allegations made against currently employed officers is extremely troubling. Further, the Eighth Amendment protects people from cruel and unusual punishment. Sexual assault is never part of a person’s sentence, and we have a legal and moral obligation to protect people in custody from abuse

In many cases, the DOC is tasked with investigating their own wrongdoing. It is unreasonable to  expect people who have experienced abuse to trust that the agency abusing them can effectively police itself, especially when reports of retaliation for filing complaints are so widespread. Incarcerated people have reported that they fear speaking up about abuse they experience because officers control every part of their lives, and can easily block their visits with family, extend their jail time, or respond with further violence. This makes it even more important that a thorough and independent investigation is conducted. It is not enough for the Law Department to investigate the claims as part of its duty to evaluate lawsuits against the city—and it is unclear if that is even happening. The mayor could convene a task force, hire an independent attorney or investigative firm, or ask for help from state and federal partners.

The administration’s lack of urgency in addressing this, or any other problem impacting incarcerated New Yorkers is deeply concerning. We must continue speaking loudly about the culture of abuse on Rikers and not allow the mayor and DOC to sweep this under the rug. Everybody is less safe when we allow people to be mistreated.

Thank you.

"I’m saddened and angered that this is the place our city is in, and hope this step is one in a series toward restoring confidence. This resignation is a correct decision, from an array of options at a moment I wish we weren’t in – one when New Yorkers have little trust in the administration, and little information from the mayor to help restore it. 

"The next police commissioner will need to meet the same qualifications as any other should – to have the trust of both the department and the city, to be legitimately committed to transparency and accountability, and to understand the roles law enforcement should and should not play in producing public safety. Too many actions under the current administration have undercut those aims.”

"Beyond this impending appointment, the mayor still urgently needs to provide real transparency into this moment of confusion for city leadership. New Yorkers have to be able to have faith in public service and in public servants, and no ego or agenda can get in the way of that obligation."

The New York City Council voted today to pass legislation from Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams which would require the city to place a historical marker at the site of the city’s first slave market, located at what is today the intersection of Wall and Pearl Streets in lower Manhattan. This recognition, and the ways in which it would inform New Yorkers about the history of suffering and oppression inflicted on enslaved people, is part of an ongoing effort to educate people about the injustices in our city’s past and inform the pursuit of equity in the future.

The legislation was part of a package of other bills from the Council related to New York City’s history with the slave trade, including ones from Council Member Crystal Hudson to establish a Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation process, from Council Member Farah Louis to study a potential reparations framework, and from Council Member Nantasha Williams to establish a ‘freedom trail’ in the city and specifically in Lower Manhattan. Together, these bills are vital in ensuring that the city does not erase or sanitize its history, and that it will continue a commitment to the essential work of advancing racial justice efforts

“As so many places across the country are choosing to ignore or suppress our history rather than teach it, it’s vital that New York City grapple with and learn from the parts of our past we too often try not to think about,” said Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams. “The wealth of Wall Street banks was built on the backs of the human beings sold on that very spot, and we have a moral obligation to accurately acknowledge this slave market’s tragic history, the pain of enslaved people in our city, and the role slavery had in New York’s economy, one which has echoed painfully across generations. I thank my colleagues on the Council for ensuring that we do this the right way, helping inform New Yorkers as we still struggle with the impact of damage done across centuries."

The Public Advocate's legislation, Int 0833-A, will ensure that the city places a sign at Pearl and Wall Street, which is the correct location of where the first slave trade took place in 1711. The sign will also include an inscription that describes the role of the slave market in the city’s economy; the role of the city’s government in establishing the market; and the use of the market in the sale of African and Indigenous persons.

Slavery was introduced to Manhattan in 1626, and in 1711, a market that auctioned enslaved people of African ancestry was established by a Common Council law on November 30, 1711. This slave market was in use until 1762, when roughly one in five people in New York City was enslaved and nearly half of Manhattan households included an enslaved person. Even after New York State abolished slavery in 1827, the use of slave labor elsewhere to produce materials for New York’s economy continued

The Public Advocate initially began this effort as a Council Member, with the de Blasio administration agreeing to place a marker without a legislative requirement. However, the site of that signage is not accurate to the specific historical location of the slave market. This legislation clarifies the site and provides guidance on the information to be shared on the marker itself.