The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/mental-health/)
Critics say that only 13 percent of New York City police officers are trained to deal with emotionally disturbed people, leading to their unnecessary deaths at law enforcement hands.
City offers “emergency profiles” so police can tailor their responses to people with mental health issues and other special situations like allergies and languages spoken. Only 4,100 of 5.3 million people have made use of the system.
A three-year study of participants in a Florida mental health court—the longest of its kind—found “significantly” lower re-arrest rates among individuals who completed the program of community-based treatment and counseling.
In 18 months before Charleena Lyles was fatally shot by two Seattle police officers, police responded to her apartment 23 times, a number that represents almost 30 percent of all calls for service to her building that houses formerly homeless families.
A study released June 22 by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) revealed that 14 percent of state and federal prisoners and 26 percent of jail inmates reported experiences that met the threshold for serious psychological distress (SPD).
Joshua Barre, 29, was killed to prevent him from entering a convenience store with two butcher knives. “We’re asking police officers … to do the job ideally that trained mental health professionals should be doing,” said Ron Honberg of the National Alliance for Mental Illness.
A year before a New York police sergeant shot and killed Deborah Danner, a bat-wielding woman with schizophrenia, the city’s police department began giving officers specialized training on how to handle the mentally ill. The sergeant, who was charged this week with murder, hadn’t received it.
Mental health courts can offer alternatives to prison for individuals caught in the criminal justice system. The story of one Texas young man shows what happens when they’re not available.
The rate of suicide among Chicago police officers is as much as 60 percent above the national average. Critics say the problem has been exacerbated by a lack of mental health resources, with just three clinicians serving 12,500 sworn officers and their families.
Survey finds that 45 percent of mentally ill people who had contact with police said the situation deteriorated after officers arrived. The city has created two crisis-intervention teams to deal with mental health calls.