{"id":2001,"date":"2020-01-27T11:49:29","date_gmt":"2020-01-27T16:49:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/lppp\/?p=2001"},"modified":"2020-01-30T10:17:48","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T15:17:48","slug":"mental-health-and-policing-we-know-what-works-why-are-we-not-doing-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/lppp\/mental-health-and-policing-we-know-what-works-why-are-we-not-doing-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental Health and Policing: We Know What Works\u2014Why Are We Not Doing It?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heather Swadley, Law & Public Policy Scholar, JD Anticipated May 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Labor Day 2019, Darrin Lee was shot multiple times on camera by Philadelphia police<\/span><\/a>. Lee, a 31-year-old man with mental health and substance abuse disabilities, was holding a boxcutter. Bystanders can be heard on the video yelling “he\u2019s just high.” Lee survived but subsequently had to undergo numerous surgeries and awaits criminal charges upon his recovery. Lee reportedly told his father: “They shot me up, now they tryin\u2019 to lock me up.” Lee\u2019s shooting follows <\/span>the shooting of Joel Johnson<\/span><\/a>, an unarmed man with intellectual disabilities in Kensington in May 2019. Incidents such as these have led to a strained relationship between the Philadelphia Police Department and the communities they serve. <\/span><\/p>\n

These shootings follow a tragic national trend. In 2019, 752 people have been shot by police nationwide\u2014of these, 142 had a mental health disability<\/span><\/a>. More than 100 people with mental health, intellectual, or developmental disabilities are shot by police nationwide every year. People with mental health disabilities are frequent targets of “over-policing.” Police officers often serve as <\/span>the first point of contact<\/span><\/a> between people with mental health disabilities and mental health services. Yet, if police are not properly trained to fulfill this role, then people with mental health disabilities are at a heightened risk of violence. <\/span><\/p>\n

How can we prevent people with mental health disabilities from becoming targets of police violence and brutality? I argue that evidence-based interventions already exist\u2014they simply are not being employed at the rate they should be.<\/p>\n

The City has taken some steps to address police violence against people with mental health disabilities. Philadelphia Police Department Directive 10.9<\/span><\/a> provides that police officers should protect the safety of the general public by de-escalating incidents involving people with mental health disabilities. The Directive states that: “Aggressive action will not be taken by police personnel, unless there is an immediate threat<\/u> to life or physical danger to the SMDP, the police, or other civilians present.” To raise awareness about how to respond to an individual facing a mental health crisis, Philadelphia <\/span>began to offer Mental Health First Aid to police officers in 2012<\/span><\/a>. Mental Health First Aid is <\/span>like CPR for mental health crises<\/span><\/a>. While Mental Health First Aid is a promising first step, this training appears to be optional. Indeed, since 2012, <\/span>fewer than 1,000<\/span><\/a> Philadelphia police officers have received the training offered by the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability Services. Learning Mental Health First Aid should be a baseline requirement for officers who interact with people with mental health disabilities on a regular basis.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many people attribute the over-policing of people with mental health disabilities to deinstitutionalization\u2014instead of over-policing, people with mental health disabilities simply need more in-patient treatment. This approach, however, is misguided. While it is true that deinstitutionalization has brought police into increased contact with people with mental health disabilities, the onus should be on police departments to train their officers to properly respond to people experiencing mental health crises. A growing evidence base shows that there are many options available to police departments that would reduce over-policing while allowing people to stay in their communities. Community-based interventions have been empirically proven to reduce people with disabilities\u2019 contacts with the criminal justice system.<\/p>\n

Many of these interventions involve the police working alongside mental health services to keep people safe and integrated in their communities. For example, mobile crisis services work alongside police departments to de-escalate mental health crises and link people with necessary community services. Mobile crisis services are teams of mental health professionals trained to respond to emergency situations. These services may either include a combination of police and mental health professionals working together or may be an independent service provider contracted by the police. Mobile crisis teams, according to studies<\/span><\/a>, result in arrest rates ranging from 2%-13%, with an average of 7%. Typical encounters between police and people with mental health disabilities tend to result in an arrest rate of 21%.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another approach is to directly train police officers to de-escalate mental health crises. This approach is called Crisis Intervention Training (CIT). Under this model, officers volunteer to undergo intensive training in mental health crisis management and de-escalation training. When officers receive a call involving a person with a mental health disability, the officers who have been trained in CIT are put in charge, regardless of rank. The officer then considers whether an arrest is necessary or whether there are other options available to de-escalate the situation. Although the empirical literature on this intervention is still emergent and difficult to measure, studies have shown that CIT training can improve officers\u2019 confidence<\/span><\/a> and competence when responding to situations involving people with mental health disabilities. Philadelphia <\/span>has made CIT training available to officers<\/span><\/a>; however, it is not clear that the recommended critical mass of officers (15-25%) has been met.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other solutions involve creating a more robust support system for people with mental health disabilities to live independently in their communities. For example, Forensic Assertive Community Treatment (FACT) is an intervention that creates individualized teams of dedicated service providers to help people with serious mental illness navigate the challenges of living independently. FACT has been shown to prevent needless incarceration. A 2017 study<\/span><\/a> found that participants receiving FACT over the course of one year spent 50% fewer days in jail than participants not receiving FACT and were significantly less likely to be convicted of another crime.<\/span><\/p>\n

Solving the over-policing of people with mental health disabilities will require a multifaceted approach that opens lines of communication between mental health service providers and the Philadelphia Police Department. However, the evidence suggests that there are several workable solutions that could be implemented in Philadelphia. The infrastructure exists to initiate these changes. It is time to do so\u2014for people with mental health disabilities, for police officers, and to restore public confidence in our police force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Heather Swadley, Law & Public Policy Scholar, JD Anticipated May 2021 On Labor Day 2019, Darrin Lee was shot multiple times on camera by Philadelphia police. Lee, a 31-year-old man with mental health and substance abuse disabilities, was holding a boxcutter. Bystanders can be heard on the video yelling “he\u2019s just high.” Lee survived but subsequently had to undergo numerous surgeries and awaits criminal charges upon his recovery. Lee reportedly told his father: “They shot me up, now they tryin\u2019 … <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"coauthors":[67],"class_list":["post-2001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","infinite-scroll-item","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"yoast_head":"\r\nMental Health and Policing: We Know What Works\u2014Why Are We Not Doing It? - Law & Public Policy Program<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/lppp\/mental-health-and-policing-we-know-what-works-why-are-we-not-doing-it\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mental Health and Policing: We Know What Works\u2014Why Are We Not Doing It? - Law & Public Policy Program\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Heather Swadley, Law & Public Policy Scholar, JD Anticipated May 2021 On Labor Day 2019, Darrin Lee was shot multiple times on camera by Philadelphia police. 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