Shifting Societal Perceptions, and Advocating for the Safety of Individuals with Mental Illness or Disability

Mental illness and disability are incredibly misrepresented and stigmatized aspects of personal identity in our society. It has become almost routine for a perpetrator of a murder or other violent crime (particularly white male criminals) to claim mental illness as their defense in trial; this is especially evident in recent mass shootings. This information represents the bulk of the general media coverage of people with mental illness or disabilities and that coverage is what informs societal and subsequent public safety opinions of the group. Generally, people living with these conditions are seen and treated by law enforcement as the perpetrators of crime, however they are much more likely to be the victims of crimes. According to the Washington Post database, around one in four fatal police shootings are of individuals living with a mental illness, with people of color being at even higher risk with these intersecting identities. Members of law enforcement are not trained in New York City on how to safely a interact with these individuals, or in how to de-escalate a mental health crisis without the use of force. In crisis, people diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) for example might run from the police, avoid eye contact, or repeat words to name a few frequent actions (every person living with ASD presents differently). Police often respond to these actions with suspicion and can trigger an armed and potentially lethal response (Hollow, 2020). This is the nightmare scenario most families of these individuals worry about, and often hinders the individual’s ability to engage with their community at all.

An ever-growing and militarized NYPD should never respond to a mental health crisis. Although fatal police shootings of mentally ill or disabled persons are more likely in smaller density populations, the fact that the NYPD budget does not include a subsection for CIT demands attention. Trainings are not a proven solution, but they are the solution that have been put forth in policy, and they are not even implemented. Less than half of NYPD officers and staff have been given a Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training in the last five years. As an alternative, a pilot program was introduced in New York in November 2020 to bring mental health professionals to such crises instead of the police. This is a significant first step which merits notoriety; however, measures must be taken to ensure that this program is utilized equitably across all communities of the city (as we know the NYPD is not). Additionally, although CIT can respond to crisis calls, it is police officers on patrol who are likely to profile and stop an individual they deem to be dangerous; someone with a mental illness or disability might likely fit their limited lens given the information mentioned above. The NYPD needs to be defunded in the long-term, but in the short-term these patrol officers need to be thoroughly trained on mental illnesses, disabilities, and CIT to ensure the immediate safety of those living with mental illness or disability. These interventions will alleviate much of the stress felt by families who bear the brunt of responsibility for the safety of their loved one’s in the community.

It has become the responsibility of parents and families to familiarize their local officers with their mentally ill or disabled family member. This process leaves out mentally ill or disabled adults with no family or distant family, families that live in large cities like New York who do not know their regular patrol officers, and the vast number of families who will never feel comfortable or safe approaching the police about anything. These inaccessible steps place an unfair burden on these mentioned individuals and families. It should not be the burden of a family, which already must navigate innumerable obstacles when it comes to their relative, to educate their local officers about that relative in the hopes of keeping them safe from those same officers. Through policy, we need to shift that responsibility away from individuals and families, and back on to communities and local governments in the form of proper budgeting for mental health response teams and adequately utilized training and community engagement for patrol officers. These steps would begin the long term process of shifting this responsibility away from the police and on to mental health teams, and it would build a foundation for safety in the short term.

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