Emerging Partnerships Between Mental Health and Law Enforcement

TLDR

The study aimed to identify the strategies police departments use to obtain input from the mental health system for handling mentally ill persons. In 1996, police departments in 194 U.S. cities with populations over 100,000 were surveyed to gather this information.

Abstract

Police departments in the 194 U.S. cities with a population of 100,000 or more were surveyed in 1996 to identify strategies they used to obtain input from the mental health system about dealing with mentally ill persons. A total of 174 departments responded (90 percent). Ninety-six departments had no specialized response for dealing with mentally ill persons. Among the 78 departments with special programs, three basic strategies were found: a police-based specialized police response, a police-based specialized mental health response, and a mental-health-based specialized mental health response. At least two-thirds of all departments, even those with no specialized response program, rated themselves as moderately or very effective in dealing with mentally ill persons in crisis.