Police departments nationwide are teaming up with mental health professionals to identify people experiencing breakdowns, according to a new report. The strategy is an attempt to de-escalate confrontations with mentally ill people that can result in unprepared police officers using deadly force, or “suicide by cop.”
“The police are no more capable of calming a mentally ill child than an undertaker is of delivering a baby,” said the mother of an emotionally troubled son who was killed by the police, in a report on extrajudicial killings of black people.
To help police adequately respond to people experiencing mental breakdowns, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Ohio, and Utah have created special Crisis Intervention Teams and Specialized Police Responses, according to the Council of State Governments.
The report, Statewide Law Enforcement/Mental Health Efforts: Strategies to Support and Sustain Local Initiatives, found that jurisdictions that implemented these special units experienced a decrease in the use of deadly force on the mentally ill.
Community leaders in Los Angeles and San Diego realized police officers often encountered people with mental illness who were not receiving adequate treatment and service. In creating their SPR teams, they worked closely with advocates and professionals in mental health and law enforcement. The report found that when an advocacy organization takes the lead, potential mental health patients receive better service and treatment.
Supporters of the SPR and CIT programs say its implementation would mitigate the needless killing of the mentally ill by police officers.
