Reduction Of Police Caused Fatalities Essay, Research Paper

REDUCTION OF POLICE CAUSED FATALITIES

1. BACKGROUND AND STATEMENT OF NEED

? CURRENT CONDITION: Confrontations between private citizens with mental health issues and police officers have increased in recent years. Several of these situations have resulted in the deaths of mentally ill persons at the hands of police officers. The Governor has requested a long-range plan to drastically reduce these incidences.

? CAUSES OF CURRENT CONDITION: Government reduction in spending for mental health hospitals, for example the closing of Damasch State Hospital, have put people with severe mental health problems back into the communities. In an article in the May 25, 2000 edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, by Robert L. Jamieson Jr. and Kimberly A.C. Wilson state that “The potential for conflict has never been greater. Most mentally ill people are no longer warehoused in government run institutions. Across the country, recent cuts in mental health funding have jeopardized treatment for millions.”

“ Health advocates and law enforcement groups estimate that one of every

ten police calls involve a person with a mental disorder.” (Jamieson)

Since 1980, in Seattle Washington, ten out of the thirty of the people killed by police showed signs of being mentally ill. During the year 2000, in Portland, Oregon, two of the people that were killed by police were mentally ill or emotionally disturbed. Extrapolation of the Portland, Oregon numbers tends to show a similar number of police killings of mentally disturbed persons as has been experienced in Seattle Washington.

? WHAT HAS BEEN TRIED IN THE PAST: Training for a select few police officers to handle mental health related calls has been accomplished, and has helped some. But on a statewide basis not nearly enough has been done. Since 10% of the calls for police service involve mentally ill persons, the likelihood of an untrained officer responding to such a call is very high. Dr. of Psychology Michael G. Conner of Portland, Oregon wrote that “First of all, there is a tremendous variability between police agencies, their training, their professionalism and their general orders when handling a call that involves angry, aggressive, violent, suicidal, self-harming, dangerous or severely disturbed behavior.” Dr. Conner also wrote, “Officers in some law enforcement agencies are trained to respond and handle mental health and psychological emergencies. Police in some cities have specially trained officers to handle these calls. Most police departments do not.” (Emphasis added)

? WHAT MUST BE DONE: Training for law enforcement officers must be implemented to insure sufficient numbers of police officers are trained in mental health issues are available to handle these types of situations. The training needs to be accomplished statewide, needs to be ongoing, and must be to the same standard in all police agencies in this state. All state police agencies will need training to respond to psychiatric emergencies providing crisis intervention, mental health assessments, and assistance.

2. PROJECT OBJECTIVES

“ To develop a plan that will reduce deaths by police to one or less per year within five months”

? THE OWNERS, CLIENTS, CONSUMERS, & GATEKEEPERS: With the Governor requesting the long-range plan the Governor has become the owner. As the Law Enforcement Agencies are here to protect the public and will need to support this plan, they become the consumers. The public would be the clients and as an individual with a mental illness is a member of the public they also are clients of this plan. Local Civil Rights Groups, Mental Health Advocates, various Community Leaders, Internal Affairs and Department of Justice are all willing to play gatekeepers.

? MEETING NEEDS, GETTING SUPPORT, & TAKING OWNERSHIP: With the cutback in funding for mental health facilities and services, families and communities find themselves depending on the police to handle uncooperative or violent individuals who are mentally ill. However, police officers receive training in enforcing the law, not necessarily in interacting with individuals with mental illness.

All too often, law enforcement officers find it difficult to determine whether they are dealing with an individual’s mental illness or some type of unlawful behavior. In any case, officers generally lean toward their law enforcement training and follow procedures for interacting with criminals. If it turns out that subject actual has been diagnosed with a mental disease that was the cause of them resisting, or acting violent towards the police officers, the end result leads to citizen complaints and lawsuits.

In most ‘911’ calls family members are only requesting intervention in dealing with their mentally ill loved one and do not necessarily want to involve the police because they felt that the situation is not a law enforcement matter. They also did not want emergency medical personnel to respond because the situation is not a physical medical emergency. However, a ‘911’ call is all that is currently available to them.

With the help of outside psychologist, the Governor needs to develop a statewide training program that teaches specific police officers how to handle mentally ill citizens. The training cannot stop there but must include the police dispatch personnel so that they can send the right officers in potential violent situations. These officers can be designated as Crisis Management Officers (CMO’s).

A major part of the training is to determine which police officers would make good crisis management officers. A psychological profile must be developed so that the program has the best opportunity to succeed.

The Crisis Management Program will benefit the police, the community, and individuals with mental illness. This project plan will be considered a success when police officers have proper training and resources are adequate to handle someone with a mental disorder. When the communities can see advantages from having trained police officers to mediate individuals with mental illness and when the mentally ill can receive more appropriate services.

3. OVER ALL STATEMENT OF WORK:

Task Description of work Party Responsible

Obtain Funding Propose budget for the program to the state Senate. Explain both the cost benefit as well as improvement in police services. The Governor of the State

Dev. Crisis mgt. training program Determine how much psychological analysis needs to be imparted on officers to better equip themselves to handle the mentally ill. Dr. Michael Conner

Determine % to be trained Develop a % model that when implemented can have the desired personnel on duty. The coalition of police chiefs

Psychological profile Develop a psychological profile for personnel that have the traits to understand mentally ill citizens. Dr. Michael Conner

Train CMO’s Train police officers how to handle citizens that exhibit mental illness. State police academy at Monmoth

Train Dispatchers Train the police dispatch personnel on how to recognize calls that involve people that could be mentally ill. State police academy at Monmoth

Schedule CMO’s Schedule at least one or more CMO’s to be on duty every shift. The coalition of Police Chiefs

Reporting to Governor Report back to the Governor the progress of the program The coalition of Police Chiefs

State of the state address The Governor needs to explain the program the citizens of the state what the program is and how it is to be initiated. The Governor of the state.

4. Project (plan) Organization

The Public (Clients)

Governor (Owner)

Civil Rights Groups, Mental Health Community

Community Leaders (Gate Keepers)

The Police Department (Consumers)

5. Work Breakdown Structure

See attached Pert chart (Attachment A)

6 Project Schedule

See attached Gantt chart ( Attachment B)

7 PROJECT GOALS & PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT CRITERIA

PROJECT GOALS

? 50% reduction of deaths by police officers of mentally ill citizens

? To have all police agency personnel trained in the same standard.

? To have enough trained CMO’s to cover all shifts 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

? Ultimate goal to eliminate deaths by police for all mental illness cases when an officer is called to the scene.

PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT CRITERIA

? Conduct a five-year study of the number of people admitted to out patient facilities versus jail.

? Training material developed from criteria set by Dr. Michael Conner.

? 30% of police personnel trained as CMO’s

? Monthly report submitted to the Governor that iterates how many mental health calls and how they were handled. This to be check-off box form that can be easily writtened.

8. PROJECT TERMINATION

Project /Training will be on going. After a year if goals have not been met, the Project Management Team will meet to discuss with the Governor what improvements can be made to gain results.

9. PROJECT MANAGEMENT TEAM

? Governor

? Police departments statewide

? The coalition of police chiefs

? Dr. Michael Conner

? Portland Police Association