Many people are saying “defund the police” right now, and while this tends to be with regards to saving the lives of (mostly) Black men who are unjustly killed by the police, what few people realize is that defunding the police would also save the lives of the mentally ill too. Now, I know the idea of defunding the police is scary to some, but read on to find out why defunding the police should be done and how it will save the lives of people with mental illness.
The Police and the Mentally Ill
When a person with a mental illness has a psychotic break or is otherwise acting erratically, the police are almost always the ones who are called. The police are the people who we task with showing up somewhere at a moment’s notice and dealing with whatever they happen to find when they get there.
And when I think of police arriving on the scene, I think of police arriving on the scene of an active crime or a recently-committed crime. This, so often, isn’t the case, though. Because the police are the people who are called when authorities are needed, they might get called to a domestic dispute, an apartment with an out-of-control party, or, yes, a mental health crisis.
And, unfortunately, the police don’t specialize in mental health emergencies. They are forced to deal with them because the system laid out before them, but that is not their area. And I dare say, a person who is having a mental health crisis may seem scary to a person who isn’t knowledgeable enough about mental illness and may handle that situation with more force than is needed.
I am not against the police. In many cases, the police are working very hard to do a very hard job. I also believe that in situations with the mentally ill the police do their best to deal with them, but as I said, they are not specialists. They don’t know psychiatry. And they typically aren’t equipped to deal with a mental health crisis.
The Mentally Ill and the Police
And I want you to consider for a moment what it must be like from the perspective of a person with the mental illness. Consider that you’re having a very bad day, you don’t understand what is going on, you’re scared and probably paranoid, and then men with guns and other weapons come at you. If that isn’t a recipe for disaster, I don’t know what is.
This is a terrifying situation for loved ones, too, as they know that the police often overreact violently and even loved ones screaming that the person has a mental illness may not be enough to save the person’s life.
When everything does go well with a person in a mental health crisis, they are transported in the back of a squad car, in handcuffs, to the hospital. How’s that for an end to the worst day of your life — getting treated like a criminal when the only thing you’ve done wrong is have a sick brain?
Defunding the Police and the Mentally Ill
“Defund the police” is a hashtag and something we see on protest placards. It’s not a universally-defined term. What most people mean when they say it, though, is that we need to give less money to the police and more money to other organizations to deal with non-violent, non-criminal, societal issues such as mental illness. The idea is to give more money to other organizations so that the police aren’t the ones that are called in every given situation. For example, what if people without guns did traffic stops? What if people without guns handled non-violence issues with the homeless? And what if people without guns came to the rescue of the mentally ill — people who are having a medical crisis.
And why does this matter so much? It matters because according to a 2015 report done by the Treatment Advocacy Center:
One in four people killed in police encounters in the United States are adults with a serious mental illness.
That statistic is so shocking, I had to read it multiple times.
I also had to make this video about it.
And, in case you were wondering, people with serious mental illness make up only about four percent of the population and account for three to five percent of violent acts.
This means that if you happen to have schizophrenia or bipolar disorder and have a really bad day, in the United States you are 16 times more likely to be killed in a police encounter than the average person.
Why Defunding the Police Will Save Lives of the Mentally Ill
It’s important to realize that defunding the police will only save the lives of people with serious mental illness if it’s done correctly. But there are already examples in the existence today of crisis-intervention teams that don’t employ force that are handling non-criminal mental illness and homelessness issues. These things exist. And if these types of programs were rolled out across the United States, we could save so many lives of people with mental illness.
I know that defunding the police is a change being sought by Black Lives Matter activists. Their work is something I can’t even comprehend and thank with all my heart. My argument is that not only would this change the experience of Black People and People of Color in the United States — which is critically important and I support 100 percent — but this would help our mentally ill brothers and sisters too.
Image by Flickr user yashmori.
Natasha, I had this very experience with the police. Then was diagnosed with bipolar 1. Thank you for giving words to my experience. I totally agree with you. The police were absolutely not who I needed to see that day.
DEfunding the police overall is ridiculous. They actually need more funding!!
They need funding for the training to assist those of us who are suffering from a psychotic episode and are getting into trouble.
Collaboration is already happening in some states and people are happy with the way it’s going.
Defund the police is an overkill.
Check it out yourself:
https://nami.org/Advocacy/Crisis-Intervention/Crisis-Intervention-Team-(CIT)-Programs
I agree. The police are out of control right now, and are angry about accountability. Giving them less tasks, and getting other agencies involved, should cut down the need for police, as others take their place.
People with serious mental illness are much more likely to be victims of violent crime. I think the figures for people with serious mental illness being victims of violent crime are huge as it’s around 25% annually. I’m not American, but it seems from the outside that the US Police are very underfunded and very poorly trained. They also don’t seem be anywhere near careful enough about the selection of people for the job. I think defunding your Police would be the gateway to hell, but root and branch reform might be a good idea.
My objection to using police is that they are trained to *escalate* tense situations, shouting for surrender and using physical force. We need someone who knows how to *de-escalate* in a mental health crisis, to put a mentally ill patient at ease. In short, to cure instead of kill. De-fund the police!
I suffer from bipolar disorder and my teen son also suffers mental illness. In recent weeks, as he awaits acceptance into a residential program for dual diagnosis, I have needed to contact the police several times. And they WERE necessary to the situation at hand. Any objects that could low self harm or harm to others have been removed from my home. Yet my son created a weapon to hurt himself and possibly even me. He became violent and erratic in behavior. Police were able to evaluate the situation as far as violence. I can’t not imagine a “social worker” talking my rather large, teenage son, down in this moment or having contained him with a self made weapon. The thought of only having a had only a social worker on site is frightening to me. Having a social worker there with an officer. Understandable. We need to remember that often times the mentally ill are danger of o not only themselves but others. And there are times that we must be restrained because we do not have control of our thoughts or our actions as a result of psychosis. I understand where defunding of police and thus finding other entities to assist with The mentally ill in emergency situations does assist situations, but to not have an law enforcement officer present at all, well, personally, that idea, based on my own, and many experiences, frightens me. I feel that this idea has not been completely thought out. My son or I could have been dead or severely injured had an officer not been present for proper restraint.