Citation

Blais E, Landry M, Elazhary N, Carrier S, Savard AM. J. Exp. Criminol. 2022; 18(1): 41-65.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s11292-020-09434-x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

OBJECTIVE

The objective of the study is to assess the capability of a mobile crisis intervention team (MCIT) to connect emotionally disturbed people (EDP) with community resources and decrease police use-of-force.

Method

In order to have equivalent groups, interventions managed by the MCIT were matched to incidents handled by traditional police officers with similar propensity scores.

Results

Average treatment effects (ATEs) were computed to assess the impact of the MCIT. The MCIT was associated with decreases in police use-of-force (ATE = − 0.08; p ≤ 0.01), EDP transported to the hospital against their will (ATE = − 0.06; p ≤ 0.10), and EDP transported to the hospital in general (ATE = − 0.42; p ≤ 0.01). EDP were more likely to be referred to community resources (ATE = 0.19; p ≤ 0.01) or managed by their social network (ATE = 0.22; p ≤ 0.01) when the MCIT was involved in the intervention.

Conclusion

The MCIT was effective in connecting EDP with community resources, avoiding unnecessary transports to the hospital, and reducing police use-of-force.

Language: en

Keywords

co-responding police-mental health programs; Community resources; Crisis de-escalation; Emotionally disturbed person; Evaluation; Police use-of-force; Propensity score matching