encounter the police when they manifest abnormal
behaviors that require police attention.Types of Police Interactions
With the Mentally Ill
The police are responsible for safeguarding the well-
being of the community. They fulfill this responsibility
by enforcing laws and maintaining social order and,
thus, most often respond to persons with mental illness
when such persons display behaviors that rise to a level
that society criminalizes. Responses may originate
from police-invoked law enforcement, police-invoked
order maintenance, citizen-invoked law enforcement,
or citizen-invoked order maintenance.
Police-invoked law enforcement is a self-initiated
response by an officer to a violation of the law by a
mentally ill person. The law violation and police
department policies and procedures force the officer
to make contact with the mentally ill law violator.
Police-invoked order maintenance is also a self-
initiated officer contact with a person with mental illness
who violates the law. But in this situation, the law-
violating behavior is of a less serious kind. It reflects a
social order disturbance that tends to be noninjurious
to others, such as public drunkenness and vagrancy.
A police call for service that originates from a
complaint by a citizen can bring an officer into contact
with a person with mental illness. Citizen-invoked law
enforcement involves a citizen reporting that a men-
tally ill person has violated the law. Similarly, citizen-
invoked order maintenance also involves a citizen
calling for police service, but like police-invoked
order maintenance, it involves law-violating behaviors
that are of a less serious nature, occur less often, hap-
pen at unexpected times, and take place usually in the
private homes of citizens (e.g., verbal arguments).
Whether the police are initiating or responding to
calls for service or whether they are enforcing laws or
maintaining social order, their work-style attitudes and
use of discretion have an impact on the way they actu-
ally handle situations involving mentally ill individuals.Police Handling of the Mentally Ill
Not all police-citizen contacts have an absolute set of
official rules and procedures on how best to handle
them, especially police contacts with the mentally ill
whose behaviors amount to some infraction of the
law. Although there is some official guidance thatstems from the law, policy, training, and supervision,
the police have some leeway or discretion in deciding
on a response option from a range of possible
responses available in a given law-violating police
intervention situation. For example, in police-invoked
situations with mentally ill law violators, there are no
demands by citizens for the police to invoke the law
mechanically. The police are free to exercise their
work-style attitudes, which include some attitudes
toward, perceptions of, and assumptions about people
with mental illness. Thus, the mentally ill person who
demonstrates public drunkenness is most vulnerable
to an officer’s discretionary power.
If, for example, the officer holds a legalistic per-
spective about policing—preoccupied with arresting
law violators and performing to the letter of the law,
then custodial police options such as arrest, involun-
tary emergency evaluation, or involuntary commit-
ment are likely outcomes. If, however, the officer uses
a problem-solving policing style—concerned about
finding permanent solutions to problems, then non-
custodial options such as counseling, release, and refer-
ral or voluntary emergency evaluation are attractive
because they offer the person with mental illness some
needed mental health treatment, thereby reducing
future police contacts.
Citizen-invoked calls for police service routinely
carry with them less opportunity for the police to exer-
cise their discretion. The police concentrate their work
effort on responding to citizens’ complaints and meet-
ing citizens’ needs. For example, a citizen may want
an officer to arrest a mentally ill person who assaulted
him or her. This situation gives the officer little chance
to make a discretionary decision such as suggesting
a voluntary emergency mental health evaluation. In a
different situation, for example, the citizen may not
want to press charges for assault. The officer could
make an intervention decision that calls for releasing
the offender and making a mental health referral.
Normally, though, the officer will choose an option
that satisfies both police and citizen interests in citi-
zen-invoked interactions with the mentally ill.Police Training
Most police officers receive some education and train-
ing in the handling of people with mental illness.
Basic recruit training hours can range from roughly
0 to 41. Fewer police officers receive continuing edu-
cation at the in-service level. Among those that do,Police Interaction With Mentally Ill Individuals——— 571P-Cutler (Encyc)-45463.qxd 11/18/2007 12:43 PM Page 571