ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The City of Rochester is putting protocols in place to make sure the same mistakes are not repeated from the Daniel Prude case when it comes to handling mental health and homicide calls.

The city announced the creation of a new crisis intervention services unit. The funding was approved by City Council and moves the family and victims services office to the department of recreation and youth services. The city says the new initiative has been in the works since before the death of Daniel Prude was revealed but believes the unit would have helped in that case on March 23.

What You Need To Know

  • The City of Rochester announced new Crisis Intervention Services Unit

  • The unit consists of two teams: a homicide response team and a mental health and domestic violence team

  • The new unit looks to be in operation sometime in October

“This is an example of a health crisis and they would have been the equipped people to respond,” said Daniele Lyman-Torres, commissioner of the city’s Department of Recreation and Youth Services.

The unit will consist of two teams. One team will be a comprehensive homicide response team and the second team will deal with all mental health and domestic violence-related emergencies.

Both teams will be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The trained clinicians would be dispatched to a scene once it was deemed safe by police. 

“We will all be working together to make sure we have all the right professionals and all the right people at the table and in response,” said Lyman-Torres.

City Council Vice President Willie Lightfoot says there is another tool help respond to homicides in the community.

“We put forth an idea to bring forth mobile trauma unit here in Rochester. We use forfeiture funds and we purchased a vehicle we’re getting ready to launch,” said Lightfoot.

The new crisis intervention services unit is expected to be up and running sometime next month.