Police Interaction with Mentally Ill Individuals

Police calls for service sometimes involve the police interacting with and responding to people with mental illness. The dismantling of state mental hospitals, the changing mentally ill population, the tightening of requirements for receiving mental health support, and the offering of limited psychological services are bringing the police into contact with more people with mental illness. Police-invoked law enforcement, police-invoked order maintenance, citizen-invoked law enforcement, and citizen-invoked order maintenance are four types of police interactions with the mentally ill who violate the law. They involve the police either initiating or responding to a call for service and either enforcing the law or maintaining social order.

How the police employ their work-style attitudes and exercise their discretionary power has an impact on the outcomes of police interactions ...

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