Law Enforcement Response to “Frequent Fliers”

Abstract

This article examines a subset of justice-involved persons with mental illness who have repeated contacts with law enforcement officers. Previous work has alluded to this sub-population—often termed “frequent fliers”—but little research has empirically examined its size and nature. This study proposes a method of identifying frequent fliers that is based on the amount of time elapsed between multiple mental-health-related contacts with police. Using more or less stringent thresholds, the analysis defines several groups of frequent fliers, including rapid cyclers, those having very frequent contacts with police. In considering policy responses to the problem of justice-involved persons with mental illness, addressing the needs of the frequent flier population proves to be a way of targeting limited resources for the most impact.