Local law enforcement officers across this country are being asked to do more than ever before, and much of it has little to do with traditional crime fighting. I’ve always said that police officers are ordinary people who are constantly thrust into extraordinary situations.
Today, roughly one in ten police calls involves someone experiencing a mental health crisis. At the same time, an estimated one in five adults in the United States lives with a mental illness in any given year. These two realities are colliding on the front lines of public safety each day.
Police officers have long been the de facto first responders to mental health emergencies. And the system, as it currently stands, is not built to support them, or the people they are trying to help.
A Role Law Enforcement Was Never Designed to Fill
Officers are trained to do many things – secure crime scenes, enforce laws, neutralize threats, among other things. They are not clinicians or therapists. Yet every day, they respond to calls involving suicidal ideation, severe psychosis, addiction-related crises, and individuals in extreme emotional distress.
When a community lacks accessible mental health services, the 911 system becomes the default safety net, and the consequences are measurable. Research from the Treatment Advocacy Center has found that individuals with untreated serious mental illness are up to 16 times more likely to be killed during a police encounter than other civilians. Other national analyses indicate that approximately one in four people fatally shot by police has a serious mental illness.
Those statistics do not suggest malice on the part of officers. They reveal a systemic gap, a mismatch between training, resources, and expectations. When someone in crisis behaves unpredictably, fails to follow commands, or appears erratic, a situation can escalate quickly. Without specialized tools and support, even well-intentioned officers can find themselves in high-risk situations.
The Toll on Officers
We cannot talk about mental health in policing without acknowledging the impact on the officers themselves.
Repeated exposure to trauma – suicides, overdoses, violent scenes (murders, rapes, aggravated assaults, armed robberies), and domestic crises – carries a cumulative psychological toll. Studies consistently show elevated stress, sleep disruption, depression, and symptoms of post-traumatic stress among law enforcement professionals. It is real.
Yet a persistent culture of silence often surrounds officer wellness. Many officers fear that seeking help may affect their careers or their standing within their departments. In fact, vulnerability is often viewed as a weakness, not officially but among the rank and file. The conflict is that the overwhelming majority of police officers are good-hearted people who want to help others. Then the world gets ahold of them, and they put up walls to protect themselves and others. Over time, they often isolate and internalize.
When we send officers into mental health crises without sufficient training or ongoing psychological support, we are compounding the strain. The burden is operational, emotional, and reputational. This is not sustainable, for the individual officer or for the communities they serve.
The Training Gap & Opportunity
Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) programs, for example, typically provide 40 hours of
Specialized training focuses on recognizing signs of mental illness, de-escalation techniques, legal considerations, and partnerships with local treatment providers. Departments that implement these programs report improved officer confidence and stronger collaboration with mental health professionals. But training alone is not enough.
Perhaps a layered approach will work:
- Consistent, evidence-based crisis response training for officers.
- Embedded mental health co-response teams pairing officers with clinicians.
- 24/7 crisis stabilization centers to divert individuals from jail.
- Confidential mental health resources for officers.
- Clear communication strategies that build community trust when incidents occur.
Communities that invest in these systems can see fewer arrests for low-level mental health-related incidents and better long-term outcomes for individuals in crisis. This is not about removing law enforcement from the equation. It is about equipping them appropriately and ensuring they are not the only answer.
A Public Safety Imperative
Mental health is a public health issue. When it becomes a law enforcement issue solely, everyone is at risk.
The reality is this: police officers are often the only responders available at 2 a.m. when someone is suicidal, delusional, or in severe distress. We owe it to them and to the families who call for help to ensure they have the right training, the right partners, and the right support systems. Families desperately want their loved ones to receive help, not sanctions or, tragically, escalation to a deadly encounter.
If we continue to rely on law enforcement as the front line of mental health response without structural reform, we will continue to see tragic outcomes, strained community relationships, and burned-out officers. If nothing changes, nothing changes.
Our officers deserve better preparation. Our communities deserve better outcomes. And individuals in mental health crisis deserve a response designed for care, not confrontation, albeit sometimes unavoidable.
This is not just a policing issue. It is a leadership issue. And it is one we can no longer afford to ignore. Learn more about this topic from an amazing program, https://www.miraclesaves.org.
