NYC NOW - May 17, 2023: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: May 17, 2023

City health officials say it's becoming increasingly hard to find buildings to use as shelters for migrants arriving in New York. Plus, voting is underway in the first citywide participatory budgeting campaign. And finally, WNYC’s Sean Carlson talks with New York City Councilmember Mercedes Narcisse about a bill that would require police officers to receive training related to recognizing and interacting with people on the autism spectrum.

Good evening and welcome to NYC Now. I'm Jenae Pierre for WNYC. City health officials say it's becoming increasingly hard to find buildings to use as shelters for migrants arriving in New York. Dr. Mitchell Katz is president of New York City Health and Hospitals. He touched on the subject Tuesday at a city council oversight hearing. The choices of locations are getting harder and hotter as the numbers are growing. harder and harder to find the ideal places.

But we're committed to taking care of people in a humane way as best we can. Kat says the public health system has had to pitch in with housing and feeding people as well, something health and hospitals gained experience with while running quarantine hotels during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. So far this year, NYC Health and Hospitals has spent $315 million on services outside of regular medical cases, for migrants. For the first time, New Yorkers citywide can have a say in how millions of dollars in taxpayer funds will be spent. WNYC's Bridget Bergen reports on the latest version of participatory budgeting. The cycle started last September when Mayor Adams announced $5 million for the first citywide version of the program. Then residents came up with ideas for projects to help their

boroughs and 33 neighborhoods hit hardest by COVID-19. Head of the Public Housing Community Fund, Alex Zablocki, says his organization helped public housing residents generate ideas, many of which are now on the ballots. The voice of public housing residents was heard through the process, and now it's time for NACHA to GOTV, get out the vote, and vote on these projects and bring home the people's money to their community. Any New York City resident 11 or older can vote online or in person, through June 25th. Stay with us. There's more after the break.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams recently signed a bill that would require police officers to receive training related to recognizing and interacting with people on the autism spectrum. According to officials, more than 300,000 New Yorkers

are on the autism spectrum and behaviors associated with autism can sometimes be misinterpreted as being non-compliantiant. A study by the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders found that 20% of youth with autism had been stopped and questioned by police by age 21. Currently, the NYPD provides autism awareness training to recruits, but the training is not required on the regular. WNYC's Sean Carlson talked with council member Mercedes-Narcese, who represents parts of South Brooklyn. She was the lead sponsor of the bill.

What exactly is it in the training required by the bill? Can you tell us about the specifics of it? Even with a fully functioning mental health respond team, police interaction with New Yorkers with autisms are inevitable. So therefore, incoming officers before they start the job will be trained on how to recognize and interact with someone with autism spectrum disorder. And they will work with experts to the field and service providers. And a minimum will include how to recognize autism spectrum disorder over sensitivity to their environment and an auditory processing can lead to escalation. What constitutes affected training? And how do you make sure that poor training doesn't do more harm than good? Also, how many sessions are enough time to absorb information about autism?

There is no specific timelining now, but we will update periodically in a consultation with the service providers to reflect any changes within the field. The officers entering the field, they will have the training, enough training to understand and how to interact with anyone with autism spectrum disorder. Does the bill have a way to track the effectiveness of the training? Right now, we don't have all the detail of it, but it's a work in progress because it's difficult to tell you, honestly, to pass any bill to require a big organization like NYPD to do all that. But it is a beginning. At least once you can interact, you can understand the mannerism that will prevent escalation.

And like I always said, to lose one life is too many. So therefore, it is a beginning. If we have to add anything, any bill to make sure that it's compliant, if it's not working for one training or periodic training, so we wouldn't add to it. Is there a way to hold officers accountable who don't put the lessons that they learn into practice? If you have the training, there is no excuses to say you did not understand or you don't know. Does the department currently track interaction between law enforcement and people on the autism spectrum? CCRB is very strict right now. they're trying to do their very best.

With that guideline, we can see who they interact. Do I have a specific for autism spectrum disorder? There is a percentage, but now we can go to detail of the percentage because now I'm aware of that we have a rise over 300,000 New Yorkers on the autism spectrum, right? And the number keep on rising. And we know in the black and brown community is even more, now more than ever.

It is a challenging time with all mental health and everything is mixed. Autism spectrum disorder is a must. Do you think that police training is enough to prevent violent encounters with the police? Like you could provide all the training in the world, but would that still allow for some encounters with police to go a bad way?

And what else could help reduce discrimination? When you do the training, it's to get to the person to understand, just like any field, medical, any way you're, are. But can we prevent a police officer from, because it's human. Let's put it that way. It's human being you're dealing with. But those that want to do the job, because I truly believe NYPD, you have some great officers that are doing wonderful, phenomenal job, amazing job. But you have some that will never be acting the way they're supposed to. If they go, they're not

doing what they're supposed to do, and you should be not in the force period. You should not be a police officer because you have to have the heart and the compassion and you have to care enough to know that someone with autism spectrum disorder needs your help, not killing them or to interact or to escalate anything because you have their understanding. That was Councilmember Mercedes-Narces, who represents a part of South Brooklyn. The law will take effect in about 180 days. Councilmember, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you so much.

That's Councilmember Mercedes-Narces, talking with WNYC's Sean Carlson. In response to the news of the bill, the NYPD issued a statement, saying in part that they are, quote, pleased to work with the City Council on this important legislation that will expand our training by requiring that officers receive it biannually, ensuring that they are up to date on the latest best practices. Thanks for listening to NYC Now from WNYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day. We'll be back tomorrow.