Police-Citizen Mental Health Call Duration and Associations with Call Outcomes

Abstract

An understudied factor in police-mental health calls is the influence of call duration. The longer a call takes to resolve, the greater the opportunity for use of crisis intervention to de-escalate the situation. Alternatively, longer calls may have significant resource impacts on a shift with other waiting calls. To clarify whether call duration matters in police response, the current study assessed the average duration of police mental health calls, factors influencing call duration, and the degree call duration relates to crisis intervention response by police officers using a sample of 200 police-mental health calls in New Brunswick, Canada (52% men; 82% White/European; age range: 10-87 yrs). Variables were extracted from body worn camera and police records. Calls lasted a median of 43 min, with much variability (range 2 to 642 min). Hierarchical regression found that longer call duration was significantly predicted by being a non-White client, displays of non-communicative/non-responsive behaviour, and intimidating/threatening behaviour towards others, whereas shorter call duration was predicted when clients displayed generally aggressive behaviour. Weapon presence, uncooperative behaviour, causing a disturbance, or voicing violent ideations were unrelated to call duration. Longer call duration was correlated with higher volume of crisis intervention skills used but not the overall quality of the crisis response. These findings provide a window into the factors that influence how long an officer takes during mental health calls and the factors that may shape the immediacy of their actions.