Are police satisfied with their response to mental health crises?

Image Credit: The Wisconsin Examiner, Milwaukee Independent

Authors: Sue-Ming Yang, Charlotte Gill, L. Caitlin Kanewske & Paige S. Thompson (George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA)

Goal: The goal of this study is to evaluate the ways that law enforcement officers respond to mental health emergencies in a rural context. The resulting implications of this study would hope to expose ways that both academics and practitioners can agree on improving the ways that officers respond to individuals who are in the midst of mental health crises. Further, it could direct policy implications and protocols to better serve mentally ill individuals.

Research Methodology: Researchers used both calls for service data and surveys completed by police officers to evaluate their opinions on their responses to mental health emergencies. Questions in these surveys consisted of relevant topics to receive adequate information and feelings regarding the programming that was available to officers to assist in dealing with mentally disturbed individuals who are going through crises, as well as the ways that it could be improved.

Findings: Results indicate that officers are in an ethical conundrum with regards to assisting individuals who are going through mental health emergencies. Officers feel as if it is their duty to assist these individuals; however, the training and resources that they are offered to assist these individuals are lacking immensely.

What does it mean?: The feelings that police officers in this study express could have been predicted a long time ago. Starting in the 1960s, there were two movements that were going to converge in force at some point in time: the de-institutionalization movement for individuals with mental illnesses, and the “tough on crime” policies that were enacted in subsequent years, especially relating to the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. The practicality of these two principles have forced officers to deal with mental health emergencies with both a “tough on crime” mindset (arresting mentally ill individuals for mostly misdemeanor offenses), with a lack of resources other than hospitals and jails to assist these individuals. This particular study looks at this in the rural context of a relatively poor county in the Southwest region of the state of Virginia - where these effects are exacerbated due to a lack of resources and lack of fiscal support on behalf of the state and local government. If we cannot properly respond to mental health crises in large, urban cities, then will we ever be able to get these dedicated officers the support they need to assist the civilians that they were sworn to protect and serve in rural areas? In sum, drastic changes are going to need to be made with regards to the mental health issues and topics prevalent to American society today. If, and that is a big “if”, we are going to continue to delegate the response to mental health emergencies to law enforcement officials, then they should at least feel prepared and institutionally supported in doing so.

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