Photo by Dustin Belt on Unsplash
Right now the nation is in the grips of a tense and necessary conversation about police violence. Much of this conversation rightly focuses on race and racism in policing. However, it is important not to overlook the clear and drastic role that mental health plays in interactions with police.
In a recent report “Overlooked in the Undercounted” the Treatment and Advocacy Center shows that one in four victims of police shootings suffers from severe mental illness. It also reveals that one in five incarcerated individuals also suffer from mental illness. There is strong evidence that both police encounters and prison can cause or exacerbate mental illness such as PTSD.
Police are often the first response in a mental health crisis. However, they do not have the training to properly respond to or treat people in crisis. The high stress of police encounters, characterized by aggressive orders and threats of violence, makes it more difficult for people in crisis to follow orders or control their actions. Police often interpret this inability to follow orders as resistance or threatening behavior, leading to unnecessary use of force.
Tragic Consequences of Police Intervention
This was the case for Adam Trammell, a 22-year old man who was confronted by police during a schizophrenic episode. A neighbor called police after she saw him talking to himself walking through the halls of his building. By the time police arrived Adam was in the shower, a mechanism to cope with delusional episodes. When Adam did not follow orders to exit the shower, police responded with violence. They used tasers, sedatives, and beatings to arrest him. Due to the unnecessary, excessive use of force, Adam died in police custody.
For Adam and so many others living with mental illness, police encounters are dangerous and all too common. Cuts in funding for mental health resources, particularly in low-income areas, lead to more police intervention in mental health crises. This presents a particular danger for residents living and coping with mental health issues. That same Treatment and Advocacy center report shows that people with mental illnesses are sixteen times more likely to be killed by police.
Even when police interactions with people in crisis don’t end in violence, they often lead to incarceration. The Treatment and Advocacy Center also found that people with serious mental illnesses are significantly more likely to be incarcerated for misdemeanor offenses. Incarceration can have devastating effects on anybody’s life, but especially those living with mental illness. It decreases access to mental health treatment, and can lead to a lifetime of recidivism.
Part of the issue is inadequate training for police responding to mental health crises. Though they are the first responders in such situations, officers often cannot identify when a suspect is experiencing a crisis. The presence of officers with weapons, yelling commands only makes these episodes more dangerous. As does the fact that many officers do not effectively use de-escalation tactics.
What Training is There, and Does it Work?
Over the past few years, police departments across the country have implemented Crisis Intervention Team training to help officers respond to mental health calls. The training helps officers better assess crisis situations and utilize de-escalation tactics to end encounters peacefully. Police who receive this training report feeling better equipped to respond to mental health crises and use negotiation instead of force. However, studies show that CIT training has not made a difference in the rates of injury or death in police interactions with people with mental illness.
This disparity may come from a lack of uniform CIT training. Standards of CIT training can differ throughout departments, and in some departments, not all officers receive CIT training. Police may also fail to identify mental health issues in people they stop or calls they respond to.
What CIT training has done is to increase awareness among police about mental health issues. As the police become more aware of mental health issues in the community, stigma towards individuals with mental illness or disability goes down. One study shows that CIT training decreases the likelihood of arrests for people with mental illness, and increases the likelihood of referral to mental health resources.
A Culture of Acceptance, and Recognition of Need
As more communities and police departments become first-hand witnesses to struggles of mental illness, they realize the need for dedicated mental health resources. More funding for accessible mental health resources can prevent these crises as well as decrease overall crime. They provide earlier diagnosis and treatment, and keep young people with early mental health issues out of juvenile systems. In places where mental health resources receive funding and expansion, these police encounters decrease. When that happens, fewer people with mental illnesses end up in jail.
This takes a change in culture. Right now mental illness is dealt with through police and the criminal justice system in many cases. That effectively criminalizes people with mental illness. When we address mental health through education and healthcare, rather than police, it benefits entire communities.
