Mental Illness, Police Use of Force, and Citizen Injury

• NCJ Number: 252392
• Author(s): Michael T. Rossler, William Terrill
• Date Published: January 2017
• Length: 24 pages
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Award: Assessing Police Use of Force Policy and Outcomes

Annotation

Since police departments are increasingly becoming the primary entity for managing incidents that involve persons with mental illness, the current study drew from a multi-city use-of-force research project to examine whether citizens displaying signs of mental illness were subjected to higher levels of police use of force, and whether they were more likely to be injured, controlling for a host of relevant predictors.

Abstract

The study’s findings show that officers used higher levels of force on persons with mental illness, but such citizens were not at increased risk of injury. The policy and research implications of the findings are discussed. (Publisher abstract modified)