The NYPD has identified mentally ill New Yorkers who have allegedly stopped taking their court-ordered medication and is tracking them down with sophisticated technology to prevent high-profile subway-shoving crimes. A disgustingly-titled report in the Post asserts that the Health Department and the NYPD have "already drawn up a list of 25 targets" who are "the most dangerous mental-health patients that currently have mental-hygiene warrants," and are using real-time surveillance to locate them for arrest.
Police are using their real-time crime center to locate their "targets," before dispatching detectives. “You might find yourself looking all over the place for one of these kooks who rides the subway back and forth," one of the paper's police sources says. “There’s no rhyme or reason to their craziness."
“All of these patients are receiving treatment for mental-health conditions,” Health Department spokesman Sam Miller said. “If they do not receive sustained treatment... they could pose some risk to themselves, family members or others.”
Erika Menendez, who allegedly shoved a man to his death onto the subway tracks in December, apparently hadn't been properly taking her medication, and said she had been self-medicating with marijuana. A court later found her to be mentally sound to stand trial.
Naeem Davis, who was charged with second-degree murder for pushing a man to his death on the subway tracks that same month, said that he was under the influence of marijuana when the incident happened.
Kendra's Law, named after a woman fatally pushed onto the subway tracks in 1999, allows courts to force "assisted outpatient treatment" on mentally ill patients.
WNYC recently interviewed medical professionals about Kendra's Law, and an extension of the statute recently proposed by Governor Cuomo:
Dr. Bruce Link, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, said Kendra’s Law has been effective at reducing violence among the mentally ill—and strikes a balance between individual rights and public safety.
But he also was cautious about extending involuntary treatment to a broader swathe of the mentally ill.
"Predicting dangerousness is just a difficult thing that psychiatry really can’t do perfectly," Link said. The current system, he said, provides "a pretty good idea of who’s at risk."
