Mental health workers to handle crises
City will utilize mental health professionals, not NYPD offi cers
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BRONX TIMES REPORTER,40 NOVEMBER 13-19, 2020 BTR
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
A Bronx woman faces criminal
charges for fatally striking a mopedrider
with her sedan while allegedly
driving drunk early on Saturday
morning, police reported.
Stephanie Mendez, 33, of Haviland
Avenue was booked shortly after
the Nov. 7 crash that claimed the life
of Frank Davila, 59, who lived right
around the corner from the crash site,
on Bruckner Boulevard in Soundview.
Law enforcement sources said Davila
was riding his moped southbound
on Rosedale Avenue at about 12:20 a.m.
on Nov. 7 and entering the intersection
of the Bruckner Boulevard when Mendez
approached while operating a 2005
grey Volvo sedan heading eastbound
on the boulevard.
Cops reported that Mendez struck
Davila and his moped, sending the victim
hurtling to the pavement. Mendez
stopped her vehicle and remained at
the scene, police said.
Offi cers from the 43rd Precinct
and EMS units responded to a 911 call
about the collision. Upon arriving at
the scene, they found Davila unconscious
and unresponsive on the street,
with trauma about his body.
Paramedics rushed him to Jacobi
Hospital, where he was pronounced
dead.
Following questioning, Mendez
was taken into custody on charges of
driving while intoxicated and driving
while ability impaired. Additional
charges are pending the results of the
ongoing investigation.
Police did not specify whether her
blood alcohol level was tested.
BY ALEJANDRA
O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
The city plans to start using
teams of mental health
professionals and Emergency
Medical Service (EMS) workers
to answer certain 911 calls
instead of NYPD offi cers early
next year as part of a new initiative,
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced
on Tuesday.
Offi cials gave few details on
the initiative including its exact
start date or where it will
begin to be implemented. The
plan is to pilot the program in
two “high need” neighborhoods
that have been hit hard by the
coronavirus pandemic over the
next few months and eventually
expand across the city, according
to fi rst lady Chirlane Mc-
Cray, who made the announcement
along with the mayor.
“This is the fi rst time in our
history that health professionals
will be the default responders
to mental health emergencies,
treating mental health
crises as mental health challenges
and not public safety
ones,” said McCray.
“This is a major innovation,
this is a big change in how
things are done,” Mayor de Blasio
added.
NYPD offi cers will be dispatched
along with mental
health professionals and EMS
for calls that involve a weapon
or a person exhibiting violent
behavior, according to McCray.
In these instances, health professionals
will still be in charge
of coordinating the response
while NYPD serves as back-up
and “ensure everyone’s safety.”
The pilot is essentially an edited
version of a de Blasio initiative
created last year to change
the way the NYPD responds to
disruptive mental health episodes
after offi cers shot and
killed a mentally ill Brooklyn
man who they believed had
a gun.
Originally, the plan called
for teams of trained mental
health professionals to join
NYPD offi cers as they responded
to emergencies.
“We put that pilot on pause,
we are holding off to see if a
much more health-centered approach
to these kinds of mental
health emergencies would
be successful in New York as
it has been elsewhere,” said
Director of The Mayor’s Offi
ce of ThriveNYC Susan Herman.
San Francisco and Denver
are both reforming the role
of police and no longer deploy
offi cers to respond to behavioral,
psychiatric, or substance
abuse calls.
“We believe that working
together, developing the right
protocols… we can make sure
that when it is a truly dangerous
situation, the NYPD will
be there.”
Mayor’s Offi ce
Alleged drunk driver fatally
strikes man on moped