Ruth Lowenkron, director of Disability Justice at NYLPI, was quoted in an AP News story about an increase in non-police emergency response lines throughout the country, including New York’s B-Heard program, of which she was highly critical.

“Officials say B-HEARD answered 53% of eligible calls in the last six months of 2022, the most recent data available. But that was 16% of all the mental health crisis calls within the program’s limited territory.

Combined, staffers answered about 2% of the 171,000 such calls citywide throughout last year.

‘Very unimpressive,’ says Ruth Lowenkron, an attorney involved in a federal lawsuit that seeks changes in B-HEARD.”

Read more via AP News.

Read more about Baerga v. City of New York here.