Police-Encounters-With-People-In-Crisis

police arrive, what many people in crisis most need is reassurance. Many people in crisis
would like the police to help them make the crisis diminish, and to make them safe.
25. The person in crisis also views the treatment they receive by police as an issue of
fairness. Many people in crisis suffer from mental illness, which makes them different
from others in ways that they cannot necessarily control. Their difference deserves
accommodation, within reasonable limits. When police do not have the necessary
characteristics—i.e., ability, attitude, information, training, equipment, etc.—or
resources to accommodate appropriately, there is a perception of unfair treatment. The
person in crisis does not want to be treated as an object, but as a fellow human being.
26. I do not mean to minimize the reality that some people in crisis are aggressive
and, in order to protect them and others from serious bodily harm, cannot be helped by
police at the moment of crisis through any means other than physical restraint. Part of
the tremendous challenge for police is to distinguish such cases from cases where a
slower, more empathetic approach is called for. But from the perspective of the person
in crisis, the approach taken by police can make the difference between living and dying.
3. The perspective of those directly affected by a death
27. There is a third perspective that must also be considered. It is a perspective that
has had a profound effect on my appreciation of the issues in this Review. It is the
perspective of those directly affected by a lethal encounter, who live on after the death
and are permanently scarred by it. This group of people includes not only the family of
the person killed, but also the officer who caused the death, and the officer’s family.
28. When a person in crisis is killed by police, it has a terrible effect on the deceased
person’s family. In addition to the heartbreak of the loss itself, family members often
experience a tremendous sense of guilt—guilt that they could not protect their parent,
sibling, spouse, or child from death, and guilt that they were unable to provide the
person with access to necessary treatment. Guilt is often accompanied by blame, which
may be directed outward, at the police and mental health system, or inward, at other
family members. Families can be destroyed, as can their faith in some of the central
institutions of our society.
29. What is often not appreciated is the effect of police killings on the officers
themselves. Causing the death of a person who needs help is a police officer’s nightmare.
Regardless of how justifiable the killing may have been (in terms of being necessary in
order to protect the life of the officer or others), the officer experiences self-doubt and
guilt, which is exacerbated to a very high degree by the ensuing Special Investigations
Unit (SIU) investigation, media scrutiny, and inquest, as well as any legal proceedings
that may follow. The mental health of the officer is placed in significant jeopardy, both
in the immediate and longer terms. The officer’s family suffers alongside, watching with
a feeling of helplessness as the officer goes through all of the painful stages of trying to
heal.
30. The families of people who are killed by police often do not know or understand
the perspective of the officer or the officer’s family, especially when there is real or
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