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POLICEINTERACTIONWITH

MENTALLY ILLINDIVIDUALS

Police calls for service sometimes involve the police

interacting with and responding to people with mental

illness. The dismantling of state mental hospitals, the

changing mentally ill population, the tightening of

requirements for receiving mental health support, and

the offering of limited psychological services are bring-

ing the police into contact with more people with

mental illness. Police-invoked law enforcement, police-

invoked order maintenance, citizen-invoked law enforce-

ment, and citizen-invoked order maintenance are four

types of police interactions with the mentally ill who

violate the law. They involve the police either initiating

or responding to a call for service and either enforcing

the law or maintaining social order.

How the police employ their work-style attitudes

and exercise their discretionary power has an impact

on the outcomes of police interactions with people

with mental illness. Custodial police decisions are

arrest, involuntary emergency evaluation, or involun-

tary commitment. Noncustodial decisions are coun-

seling, release and referral, or voluntary emergency

evaluation. The police are receiving some training in

these alternatives for handling people with mental ill-

ness. In some contacts with the mentally ill, police

agencies that have specially trained mental health

crisis teams deploy them to carry out custodial or non-

custodial options to resolve police calls for service.

Prevalence and Situational Profile

Researchers have estimated that between 5% and 10%

of police-citizen contacts involve people with mental

illness. These numbers reflect an increase since the

1960s deinstitutionalization of state psychiatric hospi-

tals that housed the mentally ill, offered them some

treatment, kept them safe, and protected the public

from the real or perceived danger of coming into con-

tact with them. Overcrowded and poor living condi-

tions, the insensitive treatment of the mentally ill, the

economic expense of housing them, the availability of

psychotropic medications such as chlorpromazine

(Thorazine), the tightening of involuntary commit-

ment procedures, and the creation of community men-

tal health centers were the factors that shaped the

deinstitutionalization movement.

The closing of many state psychiatric facilities

resulted in the displacement of people with mental

illness—from living in locked state warehouses to liv-

ing in open community settings such as group homes,

family residences, halfway houses, nursing homes,

and homeless shelters that offer different levels of

care. Researchers estimate that 1 of every 10 persons

has some form of mental illness and that between 1

and 4 million persons in the United States have a seri-

ous mental illness.

Police contacts with the mentally ill often occur in

the home. Interactions with them also occur in the

streets, at halfway houses, at mental health agencies,

and in public buildings. Police encounters are increas-

ing during the night and weekend hours because

mental health resources are usually unavailable at

such times. Behaviors that the mentally ill frequently

demonstrate during their contacts with the police

include confusion, unusual or bizarre mannerisms,

and aggression. Empirical investigations suggest a

link between mental illness and criminal behavior. For

example, persons who suffer from bipolar disorder or

schizophrenia are more likely to express antisocial

behaviors that society criminalizes. Most mentally ill

offenders are under the influence of alcohol or drugs

when they commit crimes. There is some increased

risk of mentally ill individuals becoming violent.

Because many people with mental illness now lan-

guish in a variety of community settings with too few

mental heath treatment centers available, they routinely

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