Oregon University. US: Identifying the population of people with mental illness who have
frequent contact with police could help law enforcement officials and
community agencies allocate limited resources to those with the highest
needs, new research from Oregon State University indicates. These individuals, often referred to as “frequent fliers” because of
their repeated interaction with law enforcement, can consume a large
amount of police time and resources, according to researchers in the School of Public Policy in OSU’s College of Liberal Arts.
Identifying and understanding the population can aid policymakers as
they work to reduce the frequent and time-consuming interactions,
sociologists Scott Akins and Brett Burkhardt said.
“This contact is rarely criminal in nature at the outset,” said
Burkhardt, an assistant professor of sociology. “It’s usually a peace
officer custody arrest, which is a type of arrest that occurs because a
person is believed to be a danger to themselves or others due to a
suspected mental illness. But there’s a limited amount of resources, so
if we identify people with the highest needs, we can focus resources on
those folks.”
Once a local region has identified its population of frequent fliers,
community agencies and policy-makers can use the information to change
or implement policies to assist those with the highest needs, the
researchers said.
“It’s a strategic way to create a more cost-effective and humane way
to assist the mentally ill,” said Akins, an associate professor of
sociology.
For example, some communities may benefit from the use of mental
health courts to address criminal charges for people with mental health
needs, he said. Typically in such courts, a collaborative team that
includes attorneys, parole and probation representatives and mental
health agency representatives work together to address the individual’s
needs. That may include a referral for counseling or substance abuse
treatment.
Burkhardt and Akins began researching frequent fliers in 2012 in
collaboration with law enforcement officials in Corvallis and Benton
County. Law enforcement officials had noticed what they believed was an
increase in calls related to suspected mental health issues.
They asked Akins, Burkhardt and a team of graduate students to
determine if that was in fact the case and, if so, to assist with some
potential responses to the trend. The researchers’ findings and
recommendations were published recently in the journal “Criminal Justice Policy Review.”
The study was co-authored by Charles Lanfear, who worked on the
project as a graduate student at OSU. The research was supported by OSU
as well as by the Benton County Sheriff’s office, which provided funding
for a graduate student internship related to the research.
Akins and Burkhardt reviewed six years of records, from 2007 through
2012, from the Corvallis Police Department and Benton County Sheriff’s
Office and found that peace officer custody arrests increased
dramatically from 2011 to 2012, jumping from 144 to 245.
They also found that time spent on mental-health related calls –
those where the subject was believed to have a mental illness or mental
health crisis – nearly doubled during the six-year period, going from
248 hours annually to 489 hours.
In addition, the researchers determined that of the 697 people placed
in peace officer custody for mental health issues, about 17 percent
were taken into custody multiple times. A smaller group of 38 frequent
fliers had multiple mental health-related arrests in a 14-day span.
“This study validated our perspective that law enforcement contacts
with community members having a mental health crisis have significantly
risen over the past few years,” Corvallis Police Chief Jon Sassaman
said. “It also showed how important it is that we work with all
community assets to support individuals in need to prevent situations
from generating a law enforcement response.”
While the research focused on Corvallis and Benton County, the method
used to identify the frequent fliers is easily replicable by other
agencies, the researchers said. That’s important because the rise in
police contact with the mentally ill is not unique to Corvallis and
Benton County. People with mental illness are disproportionately
represented in the criminal justice system across the country, Burkhardt
said.
Police interaction with individuals with mental health issues can be
time-consuming and frustrating for law enforcement officials, who may
have some crisis intervention training but are not experts in working
with the mentally ill, the researchers said. In addition, the contact
can have the potential to become volatile.
The researchers’ findings highlight the need for ongoing
collaboration and communication between law enforcement officials and
health agencies that are likely to encounter the frequent flier
population, the researchers said. In Benton County, local agencies are
now exploring the feasibility of a mental health court and are looking
at ways to maximize existing systems that have been under-used in the
past, Sassaman said.
Akins and Burkhardt said agencies may want to make the monitoring of
their frequent flier population part of their regular data collection.
They also recommend studying any policy changes made based on the data,
to see if the changes have a positive effect in reducing police contact
with the mentally ill.