Year: 2023 Source: Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. (2023). 51(1), 6-12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.29158/JAAPL.220111-22 SIEC No: 20230804

Models of community mental health crisis response have multiplied in the last few decades, yet an estimated one quarter to half of all fatal police encounters continue to be mental health related. Persons with untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely than other civilians to be killed when encountering law enforcement. Being African American and having mental illness are factors strongly associated with police fatality. Moreover, rates of routine mental health care access are particularly low among many minority communities, resulting in adverse interactions with police that too often lead to criminalization, trauma, and deterioration of mental illness.