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Recommendations for Implementation
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a.
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Provide dispatchers with questions that help determine whether mental illness is relevant to the call for service.
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Determining that mental illness is a factor in a call for
service is an essential first step to providing appropriate police
response. The person with a mental
illness may be a crime victim, an offender, a witness, or involved in a mental
health crisis. Dispatchers should use standardized questions to aid the
information-gathering process. These questions can appear on the computer
screen or be provided in booklet format. These questions should also assess,
when possible, if co-occurring disorders (especially involving substance abuse)
or other issues are relevant to the call for service. Departments should
collaborate with mental health providers to determine the appropriate questions
dispatchers should ask callers.
Example:
Pinellas County (FL) Police Department
Communications center personnel at Pinellas
County Police Department receive training from the Mental Health Commission of
Pinellas County on interacting with callers who may have mental illness. This training ensures that dispatchers are
able to identify characteristics of mental illness and better inform responding
officers.
Example:
Houston (TX) Police Department
The Houston Police Department provides
specialized training to its dispatchers to enable call takers to determine if
the call involves a person with mental illness. This program has been combined with officer training to
significantly reduce the time between the call for service and the officer
arrival at the scene and to decrease the average time that people with mental
illness spend in police custody.
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b.
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Provide dispatchers with tools that determine whether the situation involves violence or weapons. |
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As in all calls, dispatchers should gather information to
assess safety issues that the responding officer might encounter, including
whether weapons are involved, whether the person poses a danger, if the person
with mental illness is at risk of being victimized, and whether there is a
history of violence. To further facilitate effective information gathering,
some departments "flag" certain locations in the Computer Aided
Dispatch (CAD) system. These flags appear
when a repeat call for service is made to that location. The dispatcher then
reads the text of the "flag" when dispatching the call to provide
additional information to the responding officers. These flags are placed only on those call locations that pose a
particular threat or unresolved problem, such as potential for violence or as a
repeat location. Personnel are designated to review these flags periodically to
ensure a need for each flag remains.
Example:
Baltimore County (MD) Police Department
In the Baltimore County Police Department,
supervisors make written requests to the communications center to place a flag
on certain locations where police have responded to repeat calls for service or
where there is a significant potential for violence - as determined by
knowledge of weapons in the home, previous reports of violence, or other
information. These flags are used for a
wide variety of calls, not just those related to mental health issues.
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c.
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Provide dispatchers with a flowchart to facilitate dispatch of the call to designated personnel.
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Dispatchers should be given a flowchart that states
clearly who should respond when calls for service may involve people with
mental illnesses. Dispatchers should provide all of the essential information
to the appropriate responding officer, including whether mental illness may be
a factor, so that officers are able to respond effectively to a call for
service.
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d.
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Use designated codes and appropriate language when dispatching the call.
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Some agencies use a code system when dispatching calls for
service over the radio, others use what is called "plain speech," and
still others use a combination of the two. Some may be concerned that
information broadcast over the radio violates the privacy of the person who is
the subject of the call and who may have a mental illness. The police department does have an
obligation, however, to provide officers with meaningful information on the
type of call to which he or she is responding as a means of protecting the
safety of both the officer and the consumer.
To reduce possible harm that could come to the person who is the subject
of the call, dispatchers and officers should avoid the use of slang terms and
use only designated codes and/or appropriate language when communicating over
the radio. Department personnel should concentrate on describing the person's
behavior rather than guessing at a diagnoses or using a label that carries with
it stigma and potentially misleading information.
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