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- Title
Everyday police work during mental health encounters: A study of call resolutions in Chicago and their implications for diversion.
- Authors
Watson, Amy C.; Wood, Jennifer D.
- Abstract
In recent decades, there has been sustained focus on police responses to persons experiencing mental health crises. The Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) model has been a seminal effort to improve safety, reduce arrests and enhance the use of emergency psychiatric assessment. With CIT well established, new discussions have emerged around how to further enhance the police-public health interface, including diversion from hospital emergency departments. In this context, this article takes stock of current police practices, utilizing descriptive data on 428 mental health-related calls addressed by Chicago Police over 3 years triangulated with insights from 21 in-depth officer interviews. During these calls, hospital transports were conducted more often than arrests. Moreover, informal interventions - without any legal action or hospitalization - were used most often, speaking to the "gray zone" nature of mental health-related encounters. Taken together, the data reveal the need for non-crisis diversion options that address chronic vulnerabilities.
- Subjects
UNITED States; ILLINOIS; PEOPLE with intellectual disabilities; PRISONS; PEOPLE with intellectual disabilities &; crime; OFFENDERS with intellectual disabilities; CRIMINAL justice system; POLICE; MENTAL health laws; MENTAL illness; MATHEMATICAL models; MENTAL health; SOCIAL control; THEORY; CRISIS intervention (Mental health services)
- Publication
Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 2017, Vol 35, Issue 5/6, p442
- ISSN
0735-3936
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.1002/bsl.2324