Abstract
Objectives
The objective of the study is to assess the capability of a mobile crisis intervention team (MCIT) to connect emotionally disturbed people (EDP) with community resources and decrease police use-of-force.
Method
In order to have equivalent groups, interventions managed by the MCIT were matched to incidents handled by traditional police officers with similar propensity scores.
Results
Average treatment effects (ATEs) were computed to assess the impact of the MCIT. The MCIT was associated with decreases in police use-of-force (ATE = − 0.08; p ≤ 0.01), EDP transported to the hospital against their will (ATE = − 0.06; p ≤ 0.10), and EDP transported to the hospital in general (ATE = − 0.42; p ≤ 0.01). EDP were more likely to be referred to community resources (ATE = 0.19; p ≤ 0.01) or managed by their social network (ATE = 0.22; p ≤ 0.01) when the MCIT was involved in the intervention.
Conclusion
The MCIT was effective in connecting EDP with community resources, avoiding unnecessary transports to the hospital, and reducing police use-of-force.
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This expression, emotionally disturbed person (EDP), is used throughout the article. Most of the time, the diagnosis of mental illness or disorder is made by the police officer, based on his/her perception and not on a formal diagnosis. The person can be impaired by alcohol, medication, mental illness or a combination of factors. The police officer may maintain that the person is emotionally disturbed but not necessarily suffering from a mental health problem.
In order to estimate the propensity score, one needs to select variables that may be relevant to the treatment and outcomes in question (Apel and Sweeten 2010). Despite their relevance, some variables found in police reports were not used to compute the propensity score. The presence of firearms and the race were almost constant. Only 1.5% of interventions involved the presence of a firearm on the scene, including cases where the firearm was stored and not accessible to the EDP. Almost all EDPs (97.5%) were Caucasians. Some other variables had many missing values. Information on the employment status, the first language (e.g., French, English, or Spanish) and on the prescribed medication was, respectively, missing in 49.1%, 46.6%, and 90.7% of the cases.
While MCITs seek to reduce pressure on the criminal justice system, arrests were not analyzed in this study. Only 3.0% (n = 12) of all interventions were followed by an arrest or incarceration. Only one of them occurred when the intervention was conducted by the MCIT.
Among the 37 interventions involving the use-of-force, the force was mainly used to contain the EDP, either with straps or handcuffs (64.9%), or with physical control techniques such as joint locks or takedowns (18.9%). Escorting the EDP (10.8%), giving orders (2.7%), and using intermediate weapons (2.7%) were the other techniques.
The force was used in 66.7% of interventions where transportation to the hospital against the will of EDP occurred in comparison with 3.6% for other interventions not involving the application of P-38.
EDPs transported to the hospital against their will were also included in this variable.
Nearest neighbor matching was also used but results were inconsistent. Some estimates were not computed when the bootstrap was used. It was also impossible to compute ATEs for several outcomes when subsamples were used, especially when small calipers, and 3 to 5 neighbors were used.
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Acknowledgments
This study was supported by a grant from the Vitae Foundation. The authors thank Bernadette Wilson for editing this manuscript. The authors are also grateful to three anonymous reviewers for their constructive and helpful comments.
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P-38.001—act respecting the protection of persons whose mental state presents a danger to themselves or to others.
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Blais, E., Landry, M., Elazhary, N. et al. Assessing the capability of a co-responding police-mental health program to connect emotionally disturbed people with community resources and decrease police use-of-force. J Exp Criminol 18, 41–65 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-020-09434-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-020-09434-x