Understanding how police officers think about mental/emotional disturbance calls

Abstract

Police officers frequently respond to calls involving persons with mental illnesses and in doing so, they are key gatekeepers of access to mental health treatment as well as entry into the criminal justice system. Programs such as Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT) are being implemented across the United States and elsewhere to train officers to respond more effectively and facilitate access to mental health services when appropriate. These programs would benefit from a thorough understanding of these encounters from the perspective of police officers. We take as a premise that officers develop frames of reference or “schema” for understanding and responding to these encounters that are shaped by socialization, training, and their experience as police officers. In this study, we examine police officer schema of mental/emotional disturbance (M/EDP) calls. Qualitative interviews provided the foundation to develop the Needs on the Street Interview (NOSI) to tap officer schema of four types of M/EDP scenarios. The NOSI was administered to 147 officers in Chicago and Philadelphia. Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was conducted separately for each scenario to examine groups of officers with different schema as well as predictors of schema group. For three of the four scenarios, officers were classified into a two category or schema model, for the fourth (crime reported) a three category model was supported. Schema groups tended to be differentiated by ratings of level of resistance/threat and substance use. Contrary to our expectations, CIT and law enforcement experience did not predict officer schema group. While the CIT model emphasizes de-escalation skills to reduce resistance and the need for officers to use force, CIT and other training programs may want to consider increasing content related to factors such as co-occurring substance use and managing resistance.

Perspectives of people with mental health problems at hot spots: Attitudes and perceptions of safety, crime, and the police

“…Though it is widely acknowledged that police officers are now the primary response to individuals in the community with mental health issues who need help (particularly those having a crisis; see Lamb et al, 2002), most officers are undertrained or lack any training on how to handle encounters with these individuals (Bittner, 1967;Franz & Borum, 2011;Lamb et al, 2002). The lack of training in conjunction with officer concerns for their own safety during these encounters means that individuals with mental illnesses are likely to have a fraught relationship with law enforcement (Borum, Williams Deane, Steadman, & Morrissey, 1998;Patch & Arrigo, 1999;Watson, Swartz, Bohrman, Kriegel, & Draine, 2014). This tension is not ideal for members of this fragile community, as they rely on law enforcement to keep them safe.…”

Mental Health in the UK Police Force: a Qualitative Investigation into the Stigma with Mental Illness

“…Much has been reported about workplace stress (Alexopoulos et al 2014;Kotera et al 2018a;Morash et al 2006;Violanti et al 2016), and in regard to policing, a variety of research within the last 20 years has focussed on law enforcement's perception of mental health in the community (Desmarais et al 2014;Lamb et al 2002;Soomro and Yanos 2018;Watson et al 2014;Wood et al 2017); however, the occupational psychological distress of police officers has received little attention in the research literature. Frequent exposure to operational stressors has the potential to significantly affect the psychological functioning of police officers (Marchand et al 2015).…”

A pilot study exploring mental health consumers’ experiences with the police

“…Police officers have also been shown to perceive people experiencing mental illness inaccurately as dangerous, incompetent, and irresponsible (Sickel et al, 2014). Some have argued that this may lead to 'cognitive biasing' (Watson et al, 2014), increased police reactivity during encounters, and therefore an escalation of police use of force (Ruiz, 1993).…”

“…These encounters are often complicated and frustrating for both parties; this can lead to an increased likelihood that police officers will resort to using force (Godfredson, Thomas, Ogloff, & Luebbers, 2011;Watson, Angell, Morabito, & Robinson, 2008) and also that people experiencing mental illness will be more resistive to police commands (Kesic, Thomas, & Ogloff, 2013). The views of police officers towards encounters with people experiencing mental illness have been subject to much empirical investigation, with international research noting the importance of officer perceptions in shaping both the nature of the encounter and subsequent outcomes (Godfredson et al, 2011;Patch & Arrigo, 1999;Watson, Swartz, Bohrman, Kriegel, & Draine, 2014). However, the attitudes and opinions of people experiencing mental illness have been largely overlooked in the published literature, with very few articles to date investigating their perceptions of police and police encounters that they experience (Desmarais et al, 2014).…”