Overview
- Gov. Kathy Hochul moved to increase SCOUT teams from 10 to 15, pairing behavioral nurses with police to authorize hospital placements for people deemed at risk.
- The governor’s safety plan includes $77 million for additional NYPD deployments and system upgrades that the MTA says helped make 2025 the safest year on the subway in a generation.
- Ride-along reporting documented SCOUT and PATH teams using handcuffs and a spit hood during removals, illustrating how individuals can be forcibly taken for hospital care.
- Advocates including the Coalition for the Homeless warn the approach will fail without pathways into permanent supportive housing to prevent repeated returns to the streets.
- Separately, Hochul directed planning to extend the Q line west along 125th Street to Broadway, which opinion coverage characterizes as an $8.1 billion effort unlikely to start for at least six years.