Interpersonal dynamics of police response to mental health crisis calls

Abstract

People in mental health crisis are overrepresented in police encounters and police-involved deaths in Canada (Tartaro et al., 2021), but police use of crisis intervention may mitigate negative outcomes (Huey et al., 2021). Thus, the current paper examines officers’ interactions with persons in crisis to assess what crisis intervention skills officers use and how the quality of the use predicts call outcomes. Body Worn Camera footage and police records were drawn from 200 mental health crisis calls in New Brunswick between 2020-2024. Results indicated that: officers regularly used crisis intervention skills during these interactions; certain mental health indicators and crisis clinician presence predicted quality of officers’ crisis intervention skill use; and officers’ reliance on crisis intervention competencies and clinician presence both reduced and increased the odds of certain outcomes. Findings support the value of crisis intervention training for police in Canada and speak to the benefits including co-responding crisis clinicians.