Two cornerstones of Gov. Kathy Hochul's 2024 State of the State address were mental health and improving public safety. Among other things, she proposed a federal, state and local operation to tackle retail theft, expanding the list of offenses that are considered hate crimes, while cracking down on domestic violence and the role of guns in domestic violence incidents. 

Timothy Dymond, president of the New York State Police Investigators Association, said the governor’s focus on crime was well received, and he expects it will have an impact. 

“I’m not sure you’ll see a decrease steep enough to please the people of New York, but I think any time you deploy police officers for a problem, there is always a decrease,” he told Spectrum News 1.

He does, however, feel there is still work to be done when it comes to New York’s bail reform laws.

“It’s emboldened many of our criminals to continue to go out and steal from other people,” he said.

On mental health, Hochul proposed expanding the number of available psychiatric beds in the state by 200, establishing school-based mental health clinics and expanding support and treatment programs.

“New Yorkers will not be able to let their guard down until we fix our mental health system,” the governor said.

Glenn Liebman, CEO of the Mental Health Association in New York State, praised the governor’s agenda.

“She’s talking about things that we have talked about that others haven’t talked about,” he said. “Like mental health parity, things like children’s mental health, youth mental health, school-based mental health clinics.”

Also in the spotlight was the crossroads between the two issues, with Hochul citing the role mental health issues play in violent crime, particularly in New York’s cities.

It’s an issue Dymond said belongs at the top of the list. 

“Anyone that has traveled the subways, or has been in our urban areas recently, can tell you we have a mental health crisis in our country,” he said. “I’m really glad the governor spoke on that and is looking to make some progress.”

Liebman said the governor's initiatives to expand access to mental health services themselves will go a long way toward mitigating that issue.

“The reasons they have fallen thought the cracks is they have not had the community-based services they need to stay in the community,” he said. “We wouldn’t be seeing the criminalization of mental health that we are seeing right now.”

Across the aisle, Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt said that he was pleased to hear the governor taking on these issues, but stressed that he feels the problems that the governor is trying to solve, especially when it comes to crime, were created by Democratic policies.

Dymond and Liebman cited staffing as a major issue for their fields, saying funding in these proposals will help, but both law enforcement and mental health services have seen declines in employment that they say will take work to overcome.