Beyond crime: The realities of police duties and mental health care

Abstract

The following social innovation narrative uses secondary data analysis released by Statistics Canada to explore the most frequent service calls responded to by police officers. To date, there is a lack of research comparatively exploring service calls. These data are important as they bring awareness to the calls that most frequently occupy police officers’ time and resources (e.g., assault, theft, breaking and entering, mental health related). Such information is useful as it has important implications on the ways we approach people in crisis who rely on 911 resources to assist them. This paper concludes with critical questions, expands on the findings, and considers whether officers as sole responders to calls involving persons with perceived mental illness (PwPMI) and officer training adequately prepare police to respond to PwPMI issues, particularly in light of the frequency in which police respond to mental health-related calls.