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Cited by 119Policing Practices and PerceptionsCriminal Justice and Corrections AnalysisPsychiatric care and mental health services

Police Encounters Involving Citizens With Mental Illness: Use of Resources and Outcomes

Open access
Charette, Yanick, Crocker, Anne G., Billette, Isabelle·2014·Psychiatric Services
DOI 10.1176/appi.ps.201300053
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Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Few studies have addressed use of resources in police interventions involving individuals with mental illness. The time police officers spend on interventions is a straightforward measure with significant administrative weight, given that it addresses human resource allocation. This study compared the characteristics of police interventions involving individuals with mental illness and a control sample of individuals without mental illness. METHODS: A total of 6,128 police interventions in Montreal, Québec, were analyzed by using a retrospective analysis of police intervention logs from three days in 2006. Interventions involving citizens with (N=272) and without (N=5,856) mental illness were compared by reason for the intervention, the use of arrest, and the use of police resources. RESULTS: Police interventions involving individuals with mental illness were less likely than those involving individuals without mental illness to be related to more severe offenses. However, interventions for minor offenses were more likely to lead to arrest when they involved citizens with mental illness. Interventions for reasons of equal severity were twice as likely to lead to arrest if the citizen involved had a mental illness. After controlling for the use of arrest and the severity of the situation, the analysis showed that police interventions involving individuals with mental illness used 87% more resources than interventions involving individuals without mental illness. CONCLUSIONS: Future studies using administrative police data sets could investigate the use of resources and division of costs involved in new programs or partnerships to better address the interface of criminal justice and mental health care.

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  • Individuals with mental ill health are disproportionally more likely to be arrested and enter the criminal justice system.

    “individuals with mental ill health are disproportionally more likely to be arrested and enter the criminal justice system.157 158”

    From Interagency collaboration models for people with mental ill health in contact with the police: a systematic scoping review (2018) · cites this paper as [157]

    In “Outcomes of Police Interventions” (page unavailable), the paper reports that mental illness was associated with 2.04 times the odds of arrest when the severity of the incident was held constant. But the overall arrest rates—4.0% versus 3.2%—did not differ significantly. The claim omits that qualification and extends a finding about police encounters to entry into the criminal justice system more generally. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Hanewicz W, Fransway L, O'Neill M: Improving linkages between community mental health and the police. Journal of Police Science and Administration 10:218-223, 1982

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Authors
Charette, Y., Crocker, A. G., & Billette, I.
Affiliations
Montreal Police Service (CA)
ORCID
Venue
Psychiatric Services
Publisher
American Psychiatric Association Publishing
Published
2014-04
Volume
65
Issue
4
Pages
511-516
ISSN
  • 0022-1597 (ISSN-L)
  • 1075-2730
  • 1557-9700
DOI
10.1176/appi.ps.201300053
OpenAlex
W2135801863
Cited by
119
References
27
Citations by year
2026: 10 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 41 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 1 · 2012: 2
FWCI
5.91
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Psychiatric Services (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Papyrus : Institutional Repository (Université de Montréal) (submittedVersion)
  • Corpus Université Laval (Université Laval) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • McGill University
  • Canadian Institutes of Health Research
  • Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Policing Practices and Perceptions
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychiatric care and mental health services
Keywords
police encounters, mental illness, police intervention, arrest rates, crime severity, human resource allocation
MeSH terms
Criminal Law, Humans, Quebec, Retrospective Studies, Databases, Factual, Police, Persons with Psychiatric Disorders, Mentally Ill Persons, Law Enforcement

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