Police-citizen encounters that involve mental health concerns: Results of an Ontario police services survey

Abstract

The present study surveyed police services in Ontario to learn about changes in volume of contacts with persons with mental illness and use of pre-arrest diversion practices between 2003 and 2007, when significant new funding was provided to community mental health services. Participants included 37 municipal services (54% of services serving 92% of provincial population) and the Ontario Provincial Police. Findings indicated a trend of increasing police encounters with persons with mental illness. Police services had a range of diversion practices in place although actual implementation was lower. Some of these practices were implemented after 2005, coinciding with the entry of the new resources, although other system activities during that period also promoted police-mental health system collaboration and pre-arrest diversion. Police service ability to report data improved over the study period, but common reporting practices are lacking. Continuing work to create a provincial standardized database of police-citizen encounter data would facilitate efforts to better understand when and how diversion practices are implemented and with what results.