Law Enforcement and Mental Health Intervention

 Introduction

 For many years, there have been a disproportionate number of mentally ill individuals in the criminal justice system. This issue has raised the need for effective intervention and the best practice model that can enable the police officers to meet the needs of mentally ill people who are a threat to society. The police and the mental health providers should collaborate in helping the mentally ill individuals. The Memphis Tennessee police department developed a model known as the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) in 1987 and it is considered as the best practice model that can be used to increase safety and help individuals with mental problems.

  Crisis Intervention Team (CIT)

  The purpose of this model is to provide police officers with advanced training so that they can differentiate offenders who are mentally ill from violent offenders. The mental health experts and family advocates play a significant role in offering 40 hours training about crisis intervention techniques, community-based resources, mental health treatment, co-occurring disorders, developmental disabilities, and empathy training (Walker et al, 2016).  In addition, to receive training, police officers should collaborate with mental health professionals, police psychologists, and other community stakeholders. In other words, CIT needs coalition efforts from various stakeholders such as the law enforcement agencies, the communities, the health professionals/ psychiatric services staff, and the family members (Walker et al, 2016). Family members are among the major tenants or in other words they supported the CIT so that their mentally ill children could get help. They should continue offering support and ongoing collaboration to maintain community safety (Vickers, 2000). The law enforcement agencies should be at the forefront to support the CIT officers with information concerning the CIT activities and upcoming in-service training. The Psychiatric service staff should support the CIT model by assessing the patients and offering treatment.  The community should also care for the mentally ill people by providing community resources, meeting their needs, visiting them in the ward, and interacting with them so that they can feel comfortable and develop a sense of belonging (Vickers, 2000).

  Basic components of crime prevention

  Call dispatchers (police officers whose role is to identify emergency scene or crisis situations) identify crisis situations and call CIT police officers and these officers immediately responds to "mental disturbances” scene (Watson & Fulambarker, 2012). CIT police officers receive the calls and on their arrival to the scene, they offer medical emergency. Since they are trained, they can differentiate chronically mentally ill people from lawbreakers and substance abusers. To address the crisis, they can provide a calming influence (ensure the mentally ill person remain calm) to avoid violence or they may take the mentally ill person to the psychiatric unit where they receive emergency medical care (Watson & Fulambarker, 2012). This model is effective in preventing crime in that the CIT officers provide an immediate response by arriving at where the mentally ill person is in a state of crisis.  The CIT officers not only prevents injury but they also provide the offender with the appropriate treatment and hospitalization if necessary. The model is also effective in saving the time that would be spent in mental health admissions and there is also a reduction of disproportionate incarceration of mentally ill people (Watson & Fulambarker, 2012).  In addition to preventing crime, CIT programs are cost-effective and there a reduction in psychiatric morbidity since serious mental cases receive emergency treatment.

  The Memphis model is the appropriate law enforcement response to mentally ill individuals. This is because, the law enforcement officers responding to calls are professionals or in other words, they have the knowledge concerning mental illness and their goal is to rescue these individuals and promote community safety. The effectiveness of this model is achieved through immediate response, physical presence, verbal warning, and hands-on control (Thompson & Borum, 2006). In addition, CIT officers are compassionate and rather than engaging in a wrongful conviction, the officers take the mentally ill person to the mental health facility to receive treatment.  This model is the best law enforcement response as it reduces the arrest rates and increases consumer satisfaction.  The model has brought a remarkable change in the criminal justice system in that prior to the establishment of this model, police officers used to take the offenders to the jail including the mentally ill, the drug abusers and the homeless (Thompson & Borum, 2006).  With this model, the officers are able to identify lawbreakers and mentally ill individuals. The CIT officers also reports that  the  Memphis model is the best law enforcement response  to mentally ill individuals in that  they are well prepared in case of  crisis, emergency care is helpful,  they  avoid wrongful conviction, they  minimize time that  could be spent in maintaining community safety, there is a reduction  of recidivism rate and arrest rate,  there an increase of treatment continuity,  they are able to identify   individuals who need  psychiatric treatment,  and CIT officers also reduce  stigma toward  mentally ill people (Thompson & Borum, 2006).

 

 Proposed changes for the Memphis Model

 Two changes for the Memphis model are; increase the number of patrol police officers and allow them to know the CIT officers who are on duty.  On the same note, Sergeants, Lieutenants, Deputy-chiefs, and Captains should also receive the training even if it is 8-16hours (Vickers, 2000). There should be effective methods of data collection in order to implement enough staffing needs and programs.  In addition to these changes, I would propose that  there should be  organizational intervention and political will  that would play the role of  providing  financial and manpower support, change the governmental mindset  and culture, change the  administrative culture, and build a specialized unit  in order to move from  generalist-specialist model and focus on  building a mechanism  in which  CIT officers  can adapt to the Memphis model (Vickers, 2000).  In addition, there should be a new mental health emergency system or a unique healthcare system where mentally ill offenders are taken and given special care.

 

 

Conclusion

 The Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) is a response that has been developed by police officers in Memphis Tennessee to address the mental health crisis.  The goal of this model is to provide the police officers with 40 hours of training so that they can have the ability to identify mental illness individuals during police interaction.  Various stakeholder such as the mental health advocates, health professional, and police agencies have endorsed the model and it has gained recognition in many nations. CIT is associated with benefits such as reduction of wrongful conviction, reduction in arrest rates, fewer injuries, and reduction in recidivism, among others.  In the future, the law enforcement agencies in all jurisdictions should implement this program to promote community safety and more importantly improve the well-being of the mentally ill individuals.

 

 

 

 

 

 References

 Walker, L. E., Pann, J. M., Shapiro, D. L., & Van Hasselt, V. B. (2016). Best practices in law

enforcement crisis interventions with the mentally ill. In Best Practices for the mentally

ill in the criminal justice system (pp. 11-18). Springer, Cham.

 Vickers, B. (2000). Memphis, Tennessee, police department's crisis intervention team. US

Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance.

 Watson, A. C., & Fulambarker, A. J. (2012). The crisis intervention team model of police

response to mental health crises: a primer for mental health practitioners. Best practices

in mental health, 8(2), 71.

 Thompson, L., & Borum, R. (2006). Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT): considerations for

knowledge transfer. In Law Enforcement Executive Forum.