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New York

INTERNAL NYPD DOCUMENTS REVEAL OFFICER TRAINING ON INVOLUNTARY HOSPITALIZATIONS

It is the first public look at how officers are being trained to implement Mayor
Adams’ mental health directive.

NYPD training video: Involuntary transports due to mental illness

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By Maya Kaufman

06/02/2023 01:00 PM EDT

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NEW YORK — Two NYPD officers patrolling a Queens public housing complex spot a
woman outside in a tank top and slippers muttering incoherently to herself. The
woman says the street is her home, but the temperature is expected to drop below
freezing later that day. How should they respond?

The hypothetical scenario is among five posed to police officers in a 15-minute
presentation on situations that may warrant involuntary hospitalization. The
training was prepared to brief patrol officers on Mayor Eric Adams’ recent
directive that people may be forced to undergo psychiatric evaluation when a
mental illness is seemingly preventing them from meeting their own basic needs,
putting them at risk of harm.

The presentation slides are also incorporated in a 9-minute video that describes
when someone experiencing mental illness should be brought to the hospital
against their will and walks officers through a step-by-step protocol.

The records were obtained by the New York Civil Liberties Union in a lawsuit
filed in March against the NYPD and shared with POLITICO.

Adams has homed in on the intersecting crises of homelessness and mental illness
as part of a larger effort to address voters’ concerns about crime and
perception of public safety. His approach has drawn outrage — and legal action —
from civil rights advocates like NYCLU, who see it as both ineffective in
tackling serious mental health concerns and a dangerous infringement of
individuals’ constitutional rights.

The advocates have also criticized police involvement in implementing Adams’
directive in light of numerous instances of people in a mental health crisis
being killed or seriously injured by NYPD officers. Adams, a former police
captain, has responded by saying patrol officers would hand off cases of someone
in crisis to others on the force “who have a deeper training than the surface
training that an everyday police officer would.”

But the training materials, publicly disclosed here for the first time, indicate
that any uniformed member of service has the authority to unilaterally decide
someone needs to be brought involuntarily to a hospital because of the inability
to care for one’s self.

Beth Haroules, director of disability justice litigation for NYCLU, said the
presentation also seems inconsistent with city officials’ pledge to provide
police with in-depth training on the “unable to meet basic needs” standard and a
refresher on crisis communication strategies. Between the slides and the video,
which overlap significantly, patrol officers appear to be receiving no more than
25 minutes worth of a refresher.

The police academy, meanwhile, devotes at least four-and-a-half hours to
teaching entry-level officers about “policing the emotionally disturbed,” as the
NYPD’s student guide calls it.

In an emailed statement, an unnamed police spokesperson said officers already
receive “significant training” on interacting with people experiencing mental
illness and their involuntary commitment authority. More than 90 percent of
patrol, transit and housing officers have been trained regarding voluntary and
involuntary transports, according to the department.

“Recruits at the Police Academy are taught about mental illness, how to
recognize mental illness, effective communication, and proper tactics,” the
spokesperson said in a statement. “Moreover, a significant portion of our
members have received crisis intervention training to instruct members on how to
effectively respond to critical incidents and enhance their communication skills
with the mentally ill.”

“We are willing to do our part, and this has the full support and attention of
the NYPD,” the spokesperson added.

Since Adams announced the directive Nov. 29, details on its implementation by
police officers and frontline mental health workers have been scarce. City Hall
has yet to release data on how many people have been involuntarily committed due
to the “unable to meet basic needs” criteria. And at least one agency, NYC
Health + Hospitals, has indicated it is not tracking that metric — only the
total number of involuntary hospitalizations.

The scenarios presented in training sessions provide some insight into the
potential situations when police officers might be using their expanded
authority. A similar presentation to clinicians, which POLITICO previously
obtained, outlined several different scenarios when involuntary commitment might
be appropriate.

In the case of the hypothetical Queens woman, the presentation notes someone
sleeping on the street during a Code Blue Warning — triggered when temperatures
reach 32 degrees or lower — “may be deemed to not care for self, and may be
involuntarily taken into custody for psychiatric evaluation at a hospital.”

Another scenario involves a “reasonably groomed” man living in a messy house,
who says he was just released from the hospital after being abducted by aliens,
according to the materials. Officers called to check on him “MAY NOT
involuntarily transport the individual for a psychiatric evaluation” because he
is not a threat to himself or others and does not appear unable to take care of
himself, the presentation says.

Signs that someone cannot care for themself, as listed in the presentation,
include a strong smell of feces or urine, rotting flesh, extreme swelling of the
legs or feet, untreated wounds, no shoes, a makeshift crutch or cast,
malnourishment and the presence of bugs on the body.

An internal Dec. 6 memo to all NYPD commands, sent to POLITICO by the agency,
also described examples of people who might meet the standard, such as someone
who is incoherent and on the subway tracks or in the path of oncoming traffic.

Patrick J. Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association, which
represents rank-and-file NYPD officers, said the union is “constantly asking for
more and better-quality training for our members, especially on sensitive and
complex topics like mental health response.”

“No matter what other policies the city puts into place, police officers will
inevitably remain on the front lines of the mental health crisis,” Lynch said in
a statement. “We need the most thorough training possible, and we need our city
leaders to support us when we carry out their directives.”

State law explicitly authorizes police and peace officers to involuntarily
commit people for the purpose of a psychiatric evaluation. But civil rights
groups and criminal justice advocates argue the NYPD is ill-equipped for the
responsibility, at least in part because of inadequate training.

“This is not the role of NYPD,” Haroules said. “They should not be trying to
navigate these very complicated social problems that implicate health issues.”

Indeed, in instances when a mental health professional is present, the training
materials instruct NYPD officers to defer to that person’s judgment: “The job of
[uniformed members of service] on a scene of a clinician making this decision is
to support the decision of the clinician, not to argue with the clinician,” the
15-minute presentation says.

Yet clinicians with the authority to involuntarily commit someone, which include
psychologists and social workers on mobile crisis teams, are few and far between
compared to the NYPD’s tens of thousands of uniformed officers patrolling the
city at all hours.

The slides indicate that when a clinician is not present, NYPD officers may
decide unilaterally whether someone is unable to meet their basic human needs
due to mental illness and must be involuntarily committed — as in the example of
the woman on the street dressed inappropriately for the cold weather. (Under
former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration, some people were taken
involuntarily to hospitals during Code Blue Warnings.)

As part of Adams’ directive, NYC Health + Hospitals launched a support hotline
that NYPD officers can call for guidance in deciding whether a particular person
should be taken to a hospital involuntarily. But a presentation to train Health
+ Hospitals clinicians staffing the hotline, which NYCLU obtained in a public
records request and shared with POLITICO, notes, “NYPD officers makes [sic] the
decision.”

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