Survey: Law Enforcement Overburdened by Failure of Mental Health Departments
December 21, 2011 | National News
A new nationwide survey of 2,406 senior law enforcement officials (75% of whom were officers longer than 20 years) documents police and sheriffs are being tremendously overburdened with the "unintended consequences of a policy change that in effect "removed the daily care of our nation's severely mentally ill population from the medical community and placed it with the criminal justice system." This policy change has caused a spike in the frequency of arrests of severely mentally ill persons...(and) has become a major consumer of law enforcement resources nationwide.
The survey, "Management of the Severely Mentally Ill and its Effects on Homeland Security" by Michael C. Biasotti, vice president, New York State Chiefs of Police while at the Naval Postgraduate School, calls for implementation of Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) laws as a way to improve care for people with mental illness, conserve law enforcement resources, and keep patients and public safer. (See list of 115 law enforcement officers who died during altercations with people with mental illness who were left untreated.)
AOT allows courts to order a subset of severely mentally ill individuals who have a past history of dangerous behavior, arrest, incarceration or multiple hospitalizations to accept treatment as a condition of living in the community.
According to the survey:
- 84.28 percent (or 1,866) of the law enforcement respondents said there been an increase in the mentally ill population over the length of their career.
- 63.03 percent (n=1,391) of respondents reported the amount of time that their department spends on calls for service involving individuals with mental illness increased (during their career). An additional 17.72 percent reported that the time spent had substantially increased, totaling 70.7 percent (n=1,782) of respondents reporting an increase.
- 56% said the increase in calls is due to the inability to refer mentally ill to treatment and 61% said more persons with mental illness are being released to the community.
- The officers claimed that mental illness related calls take significantly longer than larceny, domestic dispute, traffic, and other calls.
