SSRI Ed note: People diagnosed mentally ill (= drugged), are 16 times more likely to be killed by police that others. Meds the usual cause of aggressive behaviour.
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By George Hofmann
Last updated: 10 Aug 2020
People with mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed when approached or stopped by the police than are other civilians. While 1 in 50 people have a severe mental illness, at least 1 out of 4 people killed in police shootings have a mental illness (NAMI places this estimate at 1 out of 2).
These statistics, reported in Overlooked in the Undercounted: The Role of Mental Illness in Fatal Law Enforcement Encounters [see below], illustrate the complicated relationship between mental illness and violence. And the complicated practice of policing and mental illness.
While encounters with people with severe mental illness are common and have the potential to end tragically, police training on mental illness and how to approach a person with mental illness without escalating the situation is infrequent and inconsistent across police departments.
People with mental illness often act in ways that officers can interpret as aggressive or threatening, or, because of fear, misunderstanding or past experience, they may be more likely to flee. Officers, on the other hand, are placed in situations where they have to interpret and respond to difficult behavior without much unique training on those encounters and the illnesses and behaviors that often underlie them.
The question that lingers is, why is this not being discussed in the current conversation about police violence? Mental illness appears to be the number one factor in episodes of police violence, but no one is carrying signs or demanding the training required to help those with mental illness in their encounters with police.
Also, it’s not a contradiction of the preceding points to include that police encounters with people who have mental illness that involve police use of force are rare. Half of police encounters that involve people with mental illness result in transport or referral to services, and 2 in 5 encounters between the police and people with mental illness are resolved informally.
While many encounters between police and people with severe mental illness end in violence, most encounters, which occur repeatedly each day, end peacefully and successfully.
In society today, mental illness and violence are often seen as inextricably linked, creating a harsh stigma for those with mental illness and an uncomfortable environment for the police.
While the point is often made that people with mental illness are the victims of violence at rates higher than the general population, it must be considered that people with severe mental illness like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder also commit violence at a higher rate.
What needs to be understood to mitigate this factor is when this violence most often occurs. The 10-week period following a hospitalization is when it is most common for mental illness and violence to appear together. This period is when it is most likely that a person with severe mental illness will commit a violent act, and when a person with severe mental illness will be involved in a violent encounter with police.
Better support during this period for the recently discharged and the availability of a mental healthcare worker to accompany police officers on calls involving a person with mental illness, especially post hospitalization, could significantly reduce violence perpetrated by and against those with mental illness.
When I reflect on my own experience, it is striking that every time I was discharged from the hospital I left with a follow up appointment and no other significant support. This time, post hospitalization, is desperate and confusing. I was lucky to have support from family, for without that support I could not have navigated the requirements to live well post-crisis.
Others without such support often find themselves in confusing situations. Sometimes these situations turn violent.
Incidences of violence between police and people with severe mental illness are well-researched and preventable. Both people with mental illness and police need more support, especially at key times.
Maybe this will finally come up in the current debates and demands concerning police violence.
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Overlooked in the Undercounted: The Role of Mental Illness in Fatal Law Enforcement Encounters — (Treatment Advocacy Centre)
December 2015
[The following article is full of misleading and inaccurate information – we know that it is not “untreated” mental illness that is the biggest problem, it is psych drugs that cause problems for people who are taking them and for people who have taken them. They prevent recovery from mental states that were temporary beffore the advent of psych drugs.]
Enormous attention has been focused in recent years on the lack of complete and accurate official statistics reporting fatal law enforcement encounters. Barely noted in the uproar has been the role played by serious mental illness, a medical condition that, when treated, demonstrably reduces the likelihood of interacting with police or being arrested, much less dying in the process.
Despite the dearth of official data, there is abundant evidence individuals with mental illness make up a disproportionate number of those killed at the very first step of the criminal justice process: while being approached or stopped by a law enforcement officer in the community.
Overlooked in the Undercounted: The Role of Mental Illness in Fatal Law Enforcement Encounters surveys the status of law enforcement homicide reporting, examines the demonstrable role of mental illness in the use of deadly force by law enforcement and recommends practical approaches to reducing fatal police shootings and the many social costs associated with them.
Top Takeaway
Because of the disproportionate volume of contact between individuals with serious mental illness and law enforcement, reducing the likelihood of police interaction with individuals in psychiatric crisis may represent the single most immediate, practical strategy for reducing fatal police encounters in the United States.
Fast Facts
- The risk of being killed while being approached or stopped by law enforcement in the community is 16 times higher for individuals with untreated serious mental illness than for other civilians.
- By the most conservative estimates, at least 1 in 4 fatal law enforcement encounters involves an individual with serious mental illness. When data have been rigorously collected and analyzed, findings indicate as many as half of all law enforcement homicides ends the life of an individual with severe psychiatric disease.
- The arrest-related death program operated by the Bureau of Justice Statistics within the US Department of Justice is the only federal database that attempts to systematically collect and publish mental health information about law enforcement homicides. The program was suspended in 2015 because the data available to the agency was not credible enough to report.
Recommendations to Policymakers
- Restore the mental illness treatment system sufficiently that individuals with serious mental illness are not left untreated to the point that their behavior results in law enforcement action
- Accurately count and report the number of fatal police encounters in a reliable federal database
- Accurately count and report all incidents involving use of all deadly force by law enforcement, not only those incidents that result in death
- Systematically identify the role of mental illness in fatal law enforcement encounters
Since the Study
- The 21st Century Cures Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Obama in December 2016, included a mandate for the US attorney general to collect and report data on the role of serious mental illness in fatal law enforcement encounters.
- The Bureau of Justice Statistics overhauled its system for collecting law enforcement homicide data and, in December 2016, resumed reporting arrest-related death statistics. Using the new methodology approximately doubled the number of arrest-related deaths that were verified and reported by the Department of Justice. The role of mental illness in them has not yet been reported.
