Healthinmind/Emergencies

Police, Violence, and the Mentally Ill

The police are our last resort for handling violence. Hence their occupation puts them in danger, and their ultimate means of self-protection are also violent. Very few mentally ill people are violent; most mental problems are relatively mild, and involve confusion or unhappiness about the way life and relationships are going; such people  need only some professional counsel or medication on a temporary basis, just as most physically ill people need one or two visits to a physician, one or two prescriptions, and a little time.  

However, because the police are trained to handle violent situations, they are the people most often called when severely mentally ill people behave erratically or in a threatening manner.

One such situation in June, 2000, had a tragic outcome. Barbara Schneider of Minneapolis, Minnesota, was shot to death when she walked toward six police officers with a knife. Barbara had bipolar disorder; she also had two master's degrees and a reputation as an activist who worked for social justice. It was reported that a 911 caller had asked for a crisis team to help Barbara, but the city had no crisis team. Neither does the city have a special training program to teach police officers how to deal with mentally ill people. In this particular case, the officers present apparently did not have alternative methods for subduing Ms. Schneider, like rubber bullets, tranquilizing guns, or pepper spray.

We can never know whether any training or alternative methods could have saved Ms. Schneider while protecting the officers. However, it is clear that special training for special teams equipped with a range of alternative methods for protecting themselves would reduce the annual toll of mentally ill people who are killed or injured. Providing such services is certainly a worthwhile goal, and  more and more teams are especially prepared to deal with domestic violence cases (which can be quite dangerous) or mental illness.

People who are faced with emergency situations should always ask for a special team to deal with the crisis, in case one exists. At the least, the 911 caller for help with a mental patient should make it clear that the person is mentally disturbed rather than inherently violent or a habitual criminal. That knowledge may help police to defuse the situation without being hurt or hurting or killing anyone.

The best strategy is, of course, prevention of crisis situations by seeing that the mentally ill person receives professional services before a crisis arises. There are usually advance signs of impending disaster. On the Friday before she died, Barbara Schneider told a close friend that she was in an "episode" of her manic-depressive (bipolar) disorder. On Friday, a consultation and a pill might have saved her from the bullets that killed her on the following Monday. There are very effective treatments for bipolar disorder, usually a combination of drugs and psychotherapy. Unfortunately, patients often stop taking their medication; that is very likely to lead to problems, which sometimes become dangerous.

                                                                                                                                Last updated  12/19/03