In many communities, police are the first and only available responders to mental health crises. Dissatisfaction with this arrangement among all stakeholders, concerns about the criminalization of mental illnesses, and recent evidence that at least one in four people killed in encounters with police have a serious mental illness, have all maintained attention to this issue among researchers, policymakers, and practitioners. The scholarship in this area dates back to the 1960s and has examined the nature and characteristics of police interactions with people with mental illnesses and those experiencing mental health crises, police decision making, use of force, and call resolutions. As models of police–mental health collaboration have emerged, the literature describing different models and their implementation and outcomes had grown, as has the literature on police mental health and deescalation training. More recently, researchers have sought to understand the experiences of people with mental needs in these encounters, and the response model preferences of service users and caregivers. While progress has been made in terms of improving the abilities of police officers to respond to mental health crises, a consistent theme across the literature is the lack of adequate mental health resources for people with mental health needs in the community and as options for officers to resolve mental health crises. For the most part, there is a gaping absence of literature exploring race disparities leading up to mental health crises or in police response to them. However, the current Black Lives Matter movement and calls to “defund” police suggest an urgent need to shift responsibility for mental health crisis response away from law enforcement. Government and private nonprofit groups are working to develop frameworks and guidelines for developing capacity in the mental health system to take on the primary responsibility. This work must be done through a race equity lens.
Models of Mental Health Triage for Individuals Coming to the Attention of the Police Who May Be Experiencing Mental Health Crisis: A Scoping Review
