Costs and Savings Associated With the Police Use of the interRAI Brief Mental Health Screener

Background: The police response to calls for service identified as being related to mental health continues to be highly controversial. Strategies to improve the police response include Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training and various forms of co-response models neither of which have been subjected to comprehensive evaluations, particularly as to cost-efficiency. A new approach is the use of the interRAI Brief Mental Health Screener to enhance police officer ability to identify persons with serious mental disorders. The purpose of the current study is to evaluate the costs and cost efficiency of the police response to mental health calls using the interRAI Brief Mental Health Screener.Method: Secondary data was analyzed from the use of the screener from 2018 to 2020 by police officers in a mid-sized Canadian city. Changes were measured in the overall number of interactions police officers had with persons with mental health disorders, the number of incidents where police officers referred the person to hospital, and the time officers remained in the emergency department.Results: A total of 6,727 assessments were completed with involuntary referrals decreasing by 30%, and voluntary referrals by 34%. The overall time police officers were involved in involuntary referrals decreased from 123 min in 2018 to 113 min in 2020. The average emergency department wait time for voluntary referrals dropped from 41 min in 2018 to 27 min in 2020, while involuntary referrals decreased from 61 min in 2018 to 42 min in 2020. Each averted involuntary referral to the emergency department resulted in a savings of $81, on average during the study period.Conclusion: An analysis of the costs and costs savings associated with the use of the screener demonstrate that it is a worthwhile investment for police services. An additional benefit is its ability to collect mental health statistics that may be useful to police leaders to justify budgets. Future studies should attempt to devise some method of collecting pre-implementation data that would reveal the true costs and cost-efficiency of using the BMHS, which have been shown to be significant in the current study however, undoubtedly are under-estimated.

Police Officers Do Not Need More Training; But Different Training. Policing Domestic Violence and Abuse Involving Children: A Rapid Review

Although the police have been identified as a key service provider when responding to domestic violence and abuse (DVA), very few studies have investigated their response in relation to children. This review aims to examine children’s experiences of police response in the context of DVA and to explore how the police understand and respond to children living with DVA. A rapid review of the empirical literature on the police response to DVA involving children was undertaken. PsycINFO, Web of Science and ProQuest were searched. Studies with a qualitative element, concerning children under 18 with experience of police involvement, or police experiences of children, in the context of DVA were included. The final sample comprised of six studies. Using reflexive thematic analysis, four key themes emerged in relation to children: children’s experiences of DVA; fear, uncertainty, and mistrust of police; confronting “childism”: a matter of children’s rights; and going beyond empathy: equality and justice. Regarding the police, three key themes emerged: variability in police response; limited view of police role; lack of professional competence. The findings underscore the need for awareness raising and an urgent review of the training officers receive regarding the impact of DVA on children. They also highlight the pivotal role of police when responding to DVA where children are present, as well as to advance the frontiers of research by including not only adults and professionals but also the most vulnerable DVA victim: the child.

Police Response to Latina Immigrant Intimate Partner Violence Victims: A Qualitative Analysis

While an increasing body of literature has assessed police response to intimate partner violence (IPV), a dearth of this research has examined police decision-making with formal reports of IPV among Latina immigrants. Using a LatCrit theoretical framework, the current study addressed this substantive gap through the systematic methods of the grounded theory approach to assess a sample of 36 police case files drawn from an agency located in one of the fifth most populous and diverse US cities. Results from the current study identified five themes related to shortcomings in police response to Latina immigrant IPV victims. The themes included cultural coercive control, language barriers, victim participation, case clearance efforts, and service provision. Policy implications and avenues for future research are discussed.

Can We Really Defund the Police? A Nine-Agency Study of Police Response to Calls for Service

The protests following the killing of George Floyd in the summer of 2020 led to contentious discussions and debates in many cities about policing, with some calling to “defund the police.” However, this debate has generally proceeded without adequate research about either the scale or nature of issues that the police handle and the potential consequences of the proposed reform efforts. To respond to this research gap, we analyze millions of 911 calls for service across nine U.S. agencies. We report on the types of calls for service that the police handle, including how frequently different calls arise, how much time agencies spend on different categories of calls, and the outcomes of those calls. We find that the amount and types of incidents for which people call the police are voluminous, with the vast majority not obviously transferable to other organizations or government sectors without significant resource expenditures or adjustments. However, if the police retain these responsibilities, they also need to reconsider how they can more effectively address community concerns.