Building on the Evidence

• Author: Allison G. Robertson
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12134
• Date: 01 May 2015
• Published date: 01 May 2015

POLICY ESSAY

POLICE ENCOUNTERS WITH PEOPLE

WITH MENTAL ILLNESS

Building on the Evidence

Guiding Policy and Research on Police Encounters

with Persons with Mental Illnesses

Allison G. Robertson

Duke University

Police–citizen encounters that end badly—with someone getting injured or killed—

have lately captured media attention in the United States.These events have focused

public attention on the troubled relationship between law enforcement and urban

communities plagued by violent crime, entrenched poverty, and a legacy of racial discrim-

ination. Within that larger social context are complex situations that police officers often

face when called to intervene with people who appear to be mentally ill and who might

pose a risk of harm to themselves or the public. In these encounters, police act not only

as public safety officers but also as informal social workers, emergency health-care workers,

and providers of access to treatment services (Wood, Swanson, Burris, and Gilbert, 2011).

The question of when to use force in such cases, as well as how best to avoid or minimize

its use without compromising officer safety, is an ongoing challenge for law enforcement

training, practice, policy, and community relations.

The U.S. Supreme Court’srecent decision in City and County of San Francisco v.Sheehan

(2015) highlighted complex legal issues related to these matters as well. The court held that

officers who forcibly entered the room of a woman with a mental disability and shot her

are entitled to qualified immunity from a lawsuit seeking redress for the woman’s injuries.

The court left undetermined the broader question of whether police officers who arrest or

detain and transport a person with a mental illness are subject to ADA Title II requirements

to provide reasonable accommodation of persons with disabilities. In this policy essay, I

discuss several underlying issues that are raised by Morabito and Socia’s (2015, this issue)

study on the question of potentially increased risk of injury when police officers encounter

Direct correspondence to Allison G. Robertson, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Duke Univ-

ersity School of Medicine, Brightleaf Square, Ste 23B, Durham, NC 27701 (e-mail: allison.gilbert@duke.edu).

DOI:10.1111/1745-9133.12134 C2015 American Society of Criminology 285

Criminology & Public Policy rVolume 14 rIssue 2