After Ferguson: How Crisis Intervention Trained Officers Respond to Communities in Crisis

Background/Purpose: On August 9^th, 2014 Michael Brown was killed in an officer involved shooting in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri. Following the shooting the local community and police were involved in a great deal of unrest, including peaceful protest and violent action on behalf of both parties. The event was followed by a US Department of Justice investigation leading to additional strife within the community. Although a great deal has been written revolving around community and police response to this incident, little academic research has yet addressed the impact of this event on community-based mental health services, including crisis intervention training officer response. This study aims to investigate the impacts of officer-involved violence on both community well-being, and police response to community mental health crises during a period of unrest.

Method: This study used data gathered by the St. Louis County Police Department regarding crisis intervention trained officer incidents. This data was made available through collaboration with the St. Louis County Police Department and St. Louis University. The data includes information regarding age, gender, and race of the individual and crisis, the county the incident occurred in, the type of incident, and police response. Data from after August 9^th, 2014 was compared to data from the same period of 2013.

Results: Chi Square tests were run on outcomes including client behaviors, hospital admission, substance use, gender, threats to self and others, use of force, and weapon possession/use. Outcomes also included police behavior, including use of force and charges filed. Significant differences were found related to client behavior (Chi-Square=28.56), hospital admission (Chi-Square=29.53), substance use (Chi-Square=15.12), warrant applications filed (Chi-Square=7.83), and precinct of incident (Chi-Square=58.30) for incidents not involving a suicidal individual. Type of incident was also significantly different between years (Chi-Square=48.25), with an increase in calls for disturbances and assaults.

Conclusions: Crisis intervention trained officers respond differently to calls in times of community unrest, and the types of incidents they are referred to are significantly different. Large-scale community unrest may make both police, community members, and those experiencing mental health crises respond, react, and report incidents differently. With continued country-wide unrest surrounding officer-involved shootings, it is important for community members and police forces to assess how they react to community members experiencing mental health crises.