File #: Int 0722-2026    Version: Name: Reporting and publication of mental health emergency response data.
Type: Introduction Status: Laid Over in Committee
Committee: Committee on Mental Health and Substance Use
On agenda: 2/24/2026
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to the reporting and publication of mental health emergency response data
Sponsors: Lynn C. Schulman, Farah N. Louis, Gale A. Brewer, Linda Lee, Alexa Avilés, Oswald J. Feliz, Mercedes Narcisse, Chris Banks
Council Member Sponsors: 8
Summary: The bill would require, starting June 1, 2027, that the New York City Mayor’s Office of Community Mental Health submit twice a year to the Mayor and Speaker of the City Council—and post publicly online—a report on mental health emergency calls from the prior six months. Each report would include call volume; how many calls were eligible for and received a B-HEARD response versus police or EMS; response times; outcomes, such as treatment, hospitalization, arrest, or involuntary removal; use of force incidents; demographic information; and call locations by precinct and borough. The bill would also require the New York City Fire Department to add new columns to its public 911 call data on the Open Data Portal indicating whether B-HEARD was dispatched and whether it responded, along with a randomly generated ID to enable data linking while protecting privacy.
Indexes: Report Required
Attachments: 1. Summary of Int. No. 722-A, 2. Summary of Int. No. 722, 3. Int. No. 722, 4. February 24, 2026 - Stated Meeting Agenda, 5. Committee Report 3/4/26, 6. Fiscal Impact Statement - City Council, 7. Hearing Testimony 3/4/26, 8. Hearing Transcript - Stated Meeting 2-24-26, 9. Proposed Int. No. 722-A - 4/9/26, 10. Proposed Int. No. 722-A - Fiscal Impact Statement - City Council, 11. Committee Report 4/15/26

Proposed Int. No. 722-A

 

By Council Members Schulman, Louis, Brewer, Lee, Avilés, Feliz, Narcisse and Banks

 

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to the reporting and publication of mental health emergency response data

 

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

 

Section 1. Subchapter 9 of chapter 1 of title 3 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new section 3-196 to read as follows:

§ 3-196 Mental health emergency response reporting. a. Definitions. For purposes of this section, the following terms have the following meanings:

B-HEARD. The term “B-HEARD” means the behavioral health emergency assistance response division program of the office, or any successor division or program with the same or substantially similar functions.

Involuntary removal. The term “involuntary removal” means any removal of a person pursuant to section 9.41 of the mental hygiene law or subdivision (a) of section 9.58 of the mental hygiene law.

Mental health emergency call. The term “mental health emergency call” means a call to the 911 emergency assistance system that, after the call is complete, is classified, coded, or otherwise identified in the intergraph computer aided dispatch system or the emergency medical service computer aided dispatch system, or both, as an emotionally disturbed person or any subcategories thereof, including any successor term or subcategory, as determined by the fire department or police department.

Use of force incident. The term “use of force incident” has the same meaning as set forth in subdivision a of section 14-158.

b. Report. 1. No later than June 1, 2027, and every 6 months thereafter, the director of the office, in coordination with the police commissioner, commissioner of information technology and telecommunications, fire commissioner, commissioner of health and mental hygiene, and any other relevant agency head, and in consultation with the New York city health and hospitals corporation, shall submit to the mayor and the speaker of the council, and post to the office’s website, a report regarding mental health emergency calls received during the 6 month period ending 30 days before such report is due. Such report shall include, but need not be limited to, the following, to the extent such information is maintained by the relevant agencies:

(a) The total number of mental health emergency calls, disaggregated by the 911 emergency assistance program dispatch code;

(b) The total number of mental health emergency calls identified as eligible for B-HEARD;

(c) The total number of mental health emergency calls identified as eligible for B-HEARD where B-HEARD is dispatched in response to such emergencies;

(d) The total number of mental health emergency calls responded to by entities other than B-HEARD, disaggregated by type of entity responding, including, but not limited to, law enforcement and emergency medical services;

(e) The average response time between the mental health emergency call and arrival on scene for each type of entity identified pursuant to subparagraph (d) of this paragraph;

(f) The number of mental health emergency calls in response to which additional responding units were requested, disaggregated by type of entity of additional responder requested;

(g) The number of mental health emergency calls in response to which assistance was accepted, disaggregated by type of assistance, including, but not limited to, on-site treatment, transport to a hospital, or referral to a community-based organization;

(h) The number of mental health emergency calls in response to which assistance was refused, disaggregated by outcome, including, but not limited to, involuntary removal, arrest, issuance of a summons, or the person being left at the scene;

(i) The number of mental health emergency calls for which the response involved a use of force incident;

(j) Aggregated demographic information about the subjects of the mental health emergency calls, including their age in ranges to be determined by the fire department and police department, race, ethnicity, disability status, and whether they were experiencing homelessness, to the extent such information is obtainable; and

(k) The aggregate locations reported in mental health emergency calls disaggregated by: (i) patrol precinct, as specified by the police department, (ii) emergency medical services zone, as specified by the fire department, and (iii) borough.

2. The report required pursuant to paragraph 1 of this subdivision shall include a data dictionary or other explanation of abbreviations, codes or acronyms used.

3. No information that is required to be reported pursuant to paragraph 1 of this subdivision shall be reported in a manner that would violate any applicable provision of federal, state, or local law relating to the privacy of information.

4. The report required pursuant to paragraph 1 of this subdivision may include data sourced from different data systems, and the report may therefore reflect inconsistencies across categories of data.

§ 2. Chapter 1 of title 15 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new section 15-155 to read as follows:

§ 15-155 Publication of 911 call data on the open data portal. a. Definitions. For purposes of this section, the term “B-HEARD” means the behavioral health emergency assistance response division program of the office of community mental health, or any successor division or program with the same or substantially similar functions.

b. Dispatch system randomly generated identifier columns. When publishing data to the open data portal regarding a 911 call, the department shall include a column indicating a randomly generated identifier, created for the purposes of this section.

c. B-HEARD team response columns. When publishing data to the open data portal regarding a 911 call, the department shall include a column indicating whether B-HEARD was dispatched in response to the call and a separate column indicating whether B-HEARD responded to such call. The department shall coordinate with any relevant agency to obtain such information.

d. Previously published data. No later than June 1, 2027, the department shall provide the information specified in subdivisions b and c of this section with respect to 911 calls for which data has already been published on the open data portal, to the extent such information is available to the department.

§ 3. This local law takes effect immediately.

 

REC/SOS

LS #149/17030/17150

Int. #1019-2024

4/10/2026 2:50pm