Diversion of the mentally ill into the criminal justice system: the police intervention perspective

Abstract

Longitudinal data from a suburban [Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania, USA] police department was used to assess whether increasing numbers of mentally ill individuals are coming to police attention in a state that has restrictive civil commitment laws. To test the hypothesis that police would arrest disruptive but nondangerous individuals to expedite their removal from the community, the outcomes of all incidents involving a mentally ill individual during a 5 mo. period were cited. Mental-illness-related incidents coming to police attention increased 227.6% from 1975-1979. Although a 13% arrest rate was reported for nondangerous incidents, police officers invoked the penal code only as a last resort.