Outcomes of Police Contacts with Persons with Mental Illness: The impact of CIT

Abstract

The Crisis intervention team model (CIT) is possibly the most well known and widely adopted model to improve police response to persons with mental illness. A primary goal of CIT programs is to divert individuals with mental illness from the criminal justice system to mental health services. In this paper we examine the effectiveness of fielding CIT trained and supported officers for influencing call outcomes using data from patrol officers (n = 112) in four Chicago Police districts. Results from regression analysis indicate that CIT certified officers directed a greater proportion of persons with mental illness to mental health services than their Non-CIT certified peers. CIT did not have an immediate effect on arrest. Moderator analysis indicates that CIT had its biggest effect on increasing direction to services and decreasing "contact only" among officers who have a positive view of mental health services and who know a person with mental illness in their personal life. Additional moderators of the CIT effect on call outcomes include level of resistance and the presence of a weapon. Findings from this study have important implications for policy, practice and future research.

Persons with Mental Illness in the Criminal Justice System: Police Interventions to Prevent Violence and Criminalization

“…Studies of interactions between police and persons with MI would be far reaching for a large segment of the population, as 1 in 17 Americans (6%) live with a serious mental illness (National Alliance on Mental Illness, 2010), and many have friends or family members with MI who have come in contact with law enforcement officers. Indeed, evidence suggests that CIT programs have the greatest effects on officers who are more personally familiar with MI (Watson et al, 2009). Although a police officers' duty to protect the community from dangerous people trumps parens patriae (i.e., their duty to help citizens unable to help themselves; Teplin & Pruett, 1992), societies are often judged by how they treat their most vulnerable populations.…”

“…Meanwhile, the presence of procedural justice increases cooperation and capitulation. Although quantitative tools for assessing perceptions of procedural justice have been piloted only recently (Watson et al, 2010), qualitative interviews of people with MI show that positive outcomes are associated with higher levels of perceived procedural justice (Watson, Angell, Morabito, & Robinson, 2008;Watson et al, 2009). The use of a quantitative instrument (Watson et al, 2010) supports the continued application of this theory for understanding police officers' interactions with persons with mental illness.…”

“…By February 2008, of 13,616 sworn or exempt CPD officers (Watson et al, 2009), 532 were members of the CPD CIT-an increase indicative of the program's perceived success among multiple stakeholders. Because of where and how CITs intervene, the program has great potential to help reduce prison overcrowding.…”

Research in the Real World: Studying Chicago Police Department’s Crisis Intervention Team Program

“…Interview items covered how the subject came to their attention, characteristics of the subject, the subject's level of resistance, officer's use of force, injuries to the officer and subject, other situational characteristics, the outcome of the call, perception of mental health system resources, and officer use of CIT skills. Many of the items and scales were adapted from existing measures (see Watson et al, 2009). The next section of the interview included items exploring officers' perceptions of mental health resources in their district, the CIT program, the organizational support for CIT, and the existence of CIT champions.…”

“…Here, I briefly review these findings and the ongoing analysis. First, we have examined the impact of CIT training on outcomes of mental disturbance calls (Watson et al, 2009). We collapsed call outcomes into three categories: direct to mental health services without arrest (includes transport to the hospital for psychiatric evaluation, transport to other facility, and making referrals), arrest, or contact only (officer resolved the situation informally).…”