LAW ENFORCEMENT RESOURCES
ISSUE SUMMARY: Law enforcement officers are intrinsically intertwined with the mentally ill. Increasingly, they are the front-line responders to people in crisis, in large part because of the failures of the mental health system to care for people with severe mental illnesses and weakened treatment laws that prevent people from getting the help they need until they deteriorate and become a danger to themself or others.
Law enforcement has adapted to this uninvited role in a number of ways, including specialized training to deal with the mentally ill more effectively, but it is specifically their first-hand exposure to the severely mentally ill that makes them supporters of changes in treatment laws.
- TAC BRIEFING PAPER Law enforcement and people with severe mental illnesses
- NSA RESOLUTION The National Sheriffs' Association and the Accreditation, Detention & Corrections Committee of NSA hereby share and approve of the mission of the Treatment Advocacy Center and support laws that require treatment based on a "need for treatment" rather than just "dangerousness" for those who refuse it and laws that allow a court to order treatment in the community for individuals who are in need of treatment but refuse it (also known as Assisted Outpatient Treatment).
- TAC BRIEFING PAPER Assisted outpatient treatment reduces hospital stays, violence and arrests, and improves chances of recovery for people with severe mental illnesses
- TAC DATABASE Preventable Tragedies includes summaries of news articles of which an individual with a neurobiological brain disorder (usually untreated) is involved in a violent episode, either as a victim or perpetrator. Choose 'patient injured or killed in altercation with law enforcement' and 'law enforcement officer victim' to search for episodes involving law enforcement.
- TAC FACT SHEET Criminalization of Americans with severe mental illnesses
- Mental Illness Street Guide for Law Enforcement, by H.K. Stough/Melissa Beasley, 2006
- Problem-Oriented Guides for Police: People with Mental Illness, by Gary Cordner, May 2006
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“Baker Act Reform Signed Into Law”, a statement written by Sheriff Donald F. Eslinger about how important it was for the Florida Sheriffs’ Association to improve the state’s mental health treatment law.
- Law enforcement and the mentally ill (also available in printable PDF format), a special report of the Regional Organized Crime Information Center, a technical assistance group for law enforcement, Sept. 2001
- National Sheriffs' Association "The National Sheriffs' Association and the Accreditation, Detention & Corrections Committee of NSA hereby share and approve of the mission of the Treatment Advocacy Center and support laws that require treatment based on a "need for treatment" rather than just "dangerousness" for those who refuse it and laws that allow a court to order treatment in the community for individuals who are in need of treatment but refuse it (also known as Assisted Outpatient Treatment)."
- Florida Police Benevolent Association
- Florida Police Chiefs
- Florida Sheriffs' Association
- Maine Chiefs of Police
- Maine Sheriffs Association
- New Jersey Association of Chiefs of Police
- New York State Association of Chiefs of Police
- Portland Police Department
- Support from other groups
SHERIFF MAGAZINE Opinion piece "Mental health policies are cause for alarm in the corrections community" January 2007
SHERIFF MAGAZINE Special report: "Keeping Offenders with Mental Illnesses Out of Jail" Novemner/December 2004
Oped from Orlando Sentinel: Two sheriffs on reforming the law
Oped from Corrections Today: The executive director of the National Sheriffs Association on "Shifting the Responsibility for Untreated Mental Illness out of the Criminal Justice System"
- LETTER Hope During a Crisis (The Alibi, May 11, 2006)
- NEWS Out of the asylum, into the cell (The New York Times, November 2, 2003)
- NEWS Advocate: Prison no place for mentally ill (Arizona Daily Sun, September 3, 2003)
- EDITORIAL Reforms to Baker Act would benefit everyone (Florida Today, July 11, 2003)
- OPED As tragedies mount, proven solution is ignored (Orlando Sentinel, July 10, 2003)
- LETTER Prescription for tragedy (Orlando Sentinel, June 17, 2003)
- EDITORIAL Instead of psychiatric, care he got jail (Star Tribune, June 1, 2003)
- EDITORIAL Revise the Baker Act (Stuart News, April 27, 2003)
- OPED Florida sheriffs Ken Jenne and Donald Eslinger: Without reforms, problems mount (South Florida Sun Sentinel, April 21, 2003)
- EDITORIAL Avoiding a descent into crisis: Reform of Baker Act can help families and law enforcement (Sarasota Herald Tribune, April 20, 2003)
- OPED Florida's Baker Act fails mentally ill and their families (Tampa Tribune, April 6, 2003)
- OPED Shifting the responsibility of untreated mental illness out of the criminal justice system (by Tom Faust, Executive Director of the National Sheriffs' Association, in Corrections Today magazine, April 2003)
- EDITORIAL Mental health: Involuntary help (Florida Times Union, February 24, 2003)
- EDITORIAL Reform the Baker Act (The St. Petersburg Times, Nov. 26, 2002)
- EDITORIAL Prisons and jails are no place for people with mental illness (The Idaho Statesman, Nov. 25, 2002)
- LETTER The mentally ill need help before crisis (The St. Petersburg Times, Nov. 17, 2002)
- LETTER Treatment for mentally ill can prevent tragedy (Montgomery County Gazette, Nov. 7, 2002)
- OPED Kendra's Law could help mentally ill inmates (The Buffalo News, July 28, 2002)
- EDITORIAL A tiny, and huge, change (The Los Angeles Times, June 26, 2002)
- OPED Pass AB 1421: Promote treatment, don't mandate tragedy (San Gabriel Valley Tribune, June 13, 2002)
- OPED Mentally ill can be unaware they're sick: Should the mentally ill be allowed to refuse to take their medication? (The Boston Globe, June 9, 2002)
- EDITORIAL Helping people off the streets: Shield the sick, and society (The Los Angeles Times, May 28, 2002)
- EDITORIAL Our opinion: Flexibility, funding are key (The State Journal-Register, Springfield, Illinois, May 5, 2002)
- OPED Two sheriffs: Reform Florida's mental-health law (Orlando Sentinel, April 4, 2002)
- OPED Reform Baker Act to save lives (Miami Herald, Dec. 10, 2001)
- OPED Law officers aren't mental health professionals (Orlando Sentinal, Dec. 6, 2001)
- NEWS Mentally ill need care, find prison: Without treatment, many cycle in and out of jail (Washington Post, Nov. 25, 2001)
- EDITORIAL Sheltering the vulnerable (Los Angeles Times, Oct. 22, 2001)
- OPED Mentally ill and in jail (The Washington Post, Aug. 16, 2001)
- ARTICLE We should know how many people with mental illnesses are killed by police (Catalyst, May/June 2001)
- OPED Courts must be able to order help (Baltimore Sun, March 1, 2001)
- OPED Mental illness is a family tragedy (The Philadelphia Daily News, Aug. 7, 2000)
- OPED Update in mental health laws needed; Earlier intervention could prevent many tragedies (Star Tribune, June 30, 2000)
- ARTICLE Crisis Intervention Training (CIT): A catalyst for consumers and cops (Catalyst, March/April 2000)
- OPED How freedom punishes the severely mentally ill (USA Today, June 7, 1999)
