Most of us don’t have interactions with the police. For those of us who are minorities, we have reason to be fearful. While my oldest son was going to school in Arizona, he was stopped twice for what we teasing tell him was “Driving While Indian (DWI).” There was no reason to stop him other than his brown face. And as a young paperboy who reported someone climbing into a window in the early morning, then waited for the police to arrive, I had my first negative experience. As I sat in the back of the cruiser waiting to show the police who responded where I saw the entry, I was interrogated and searched. I vowed never to report anything again. I have had occasional interactions with police since then, and count a number of former chiefs of police and commissioners for public safety among my friends. But I avoid interaction with police unless absolutely necessary. So much for community policing.
Now a report demonstrates that the mentally ill have every reason to be concerned during interactions with the police. This article by NBC [LINK HERE] summarizes a report by the Ruderman Family Foundation [LINK TO REPORT] on interactions between police and the mentally ill. Analyzing a number of police responses, the report comes up with recommendations. I can understand the need to proceed with caution, but proceeding with caution can be done with discretion.
I have often wondered whether the “Threat Response” takes over when a police officer encounters a stressful situation. If it does, then we can count on a decrease in rational thinking and emergence of the fight or flight response. The decrease in rational thinking comes about as the body redirects oxygen and glucose to the fight or flight response muscles. It takes both from the brain because the brain will not apparently need it. With the brain consuming between 20 and 25% of the body’s intake of both, redirection is a biological imperative for survival.
As a policy measure, we should be considering a system that includes the continuum of mental health that starts with the infliction of childhood trauma and ends with serious mental illness. While some severe mental illness is not related to childhood trauma, a system that covers both will help our societal goals.
Police have been made the default responders for issues involving the mentally ill. Policies that help them compassionately, but safely, deal with that response, are necessary. But we can help by pushing for a response system that starts with prevention through early work with families and continues with a system of recognizing and providing non punitive programs of educating and working with parents to overcome their traumas and parent without traumatizing behaviors. That’s a huge task. And, of course, it’s important to work with those who have the signs of trauma, but have not yet experienced the event that takes them down. What I mean by that is not always apparent, but an example is someone who exhibits no outward suicidal acts but commits suicide. Or an alcoholic who chooses to drive one day and kills a pedestrian or a cyclist, as recently happened in Anchorage.
Comments (0)