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New bill would require social workers at NYPD precincts

An NYPD vehicle sits outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on Monday. Inmates inside suffered days of bitter cold without heat in the facility.
Drew Angerer
/
Getty Images
An NYPD vehicle sits outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on Monday. Inmates inside suffered days of bitter cold without heat in the facility.

There's new legislation in the New York City council that would place social workers at NYPD precincts.

Councilman Yusef Salaam's bill would require all 77 police precincts to have a licensed social worker on hand.

"A bill that seeks to bridge the gap between law enforcement and social services. Think of moments where individuals struggling with substance abuse are met not with brutality but with support."

It would be up to individual police precincts to decide on how to use the social workers. The effort is estimated to cost the city 20 million dollars to hire more than two-hundred social workers. But advocates say it would likely lead to cutting down on the money taxpayers pay in police misconduct cases. Last year the city shelled out 115 million dollars in those cases.