In response to a grand jury’s failure to indict the police officers responsible for the death of Daniel Prude, Urban League of Rochester President and CEO Dr. Seanelle Hawkins and National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial today called for immediate action to separate mental health crises from police emergencies.

“The Urban League of Rochester extends its continued support to the Prude family,” Hawkins said. “This family needs the support of community members now more than ever. Our community can honor Mr. Prude by fighting for a revolution of values, a comprehensive rethinking from the ground up of a system of failed practices that continue to hurt, harm, and kill.”

Morial added, “We strongly support the legislation of Daniel’s Law championed by Senator Brouk and Assembly Member Bronson. The Rochester community is hurting. Rochester deserves a well-planned, state-funded system of mental health supports, and that include better police training input from community experts in mental health, anti-bias training, and community relations to interrupt the cycle of structural issues that have led to the mishandling of mental health emergencies.”

Daniel’s Law is a bill aiming to separate mental healthcare from policing by establishing state and regional mental health response councils to oversee training mental healthcare providers in responding to mental health and substance abuse emergencies. 

Assembly Member Bronson explained, “The tragic death of Daniel Prude last year and the recent pepper spraying of a 9-year-old child have rightly outraged our communities and shown that real change is needed to prevent more tragedies like these from occurring. This legislation will help ensure our most vulnerable friends and neighbors are directly connected to trained mental health professionals who will treat them with compassion at their time of need.”

CONTACT:        Teresa Candori (National Urban League)
                     212-558-5362 | tcandori@nul.org
                     William Rivera-Bloodworth (Urban League of Rochester)
                     585-325-6530 | wrivera@ulr.org