Renew Kendra’s Law now

Let a city still grieving over the nightmare death in March of EMT Yadira Arroyo under the wheels of her own ambulance, driven by a deranged druggie, remember that lives don’t have to end in such senseless violence. Monday, the state Senate voted overwhelmingly to renew and strengthen Kendra’s Law, which gives mental health authorities the power to mandate psychiatric treatment for individuals known to pose threats to public safety or to themselves.

As legislation goes, it’s been a dazzling success. But it’s set to expire on June 30.

The law had its genesis in horrifyingly familiar tragedy. Kendra Webdale, waiting at the 23rd St. N train station in January 1999, crossed paths with Andrew Goldstein, whose schizophrenia went untreated despite numerous psychiatric hospitalizations. He pushed her fatally into a train’s path.

The law that bears Webdale’s name, enacted months later, ensures that sick individuals who need, but resist, help take their medicine or face the prospect of involuntary hospitalization.

More than 22,000 times since, judges have granted treatment orders, with impressive results: A new Manhattan Institute analysis finds those individuals were 63% less likely to be hospitalized than before, 71% less likely to be incarcerated and 68% less likely to be homeless.

And therefore, it’s safe to conclude, less likely to pose a public menace.

The just-passed Senate measure would make Kendra’s Law orders easier to obtain, by requiring eligibility assessments whenever individuals with mental illness leave a psychiatric hospital or incarceration, and aiding families in securing treatment orders for loved ones spun out of control. Good upgrades both.

To their credit, New York City mental health officials spearheading First Lady Chirlane McCray’s ThriveNYC effort have stepped up to obtain Kendra’s Law orders over 20% more frequently than before, giving them plenty to brag about at a Tuesday City Council hearing.

That leaves the Assembly, not seeing fit to yet even budge a Kendra’s Law measure out of its Mental Health Committee. Get to it.