Pathways to Preventing Fatal Police-Involved Shootings of People in Mental Health Crisis

Abstract

Over the past two decades in Australia, the number of mentally ill individuals killed by police firearms annually has remained relatively constant, despite variances in the total number of people fatally shot by police in any given year. For every critical incident of this kind, there are many more police-involved mental health crisis interventions that occur in the community which are successfully de-escalated and safely resolved without the need for police use of force. But by virtue of their circumstances, fatal mental health crisis interventions attract the greater proportion of media attention and public and political scrutiny, and with good reason. Given that the highest calling of police duty is to protect life, it is only appropriate that after a critical incident of this kind consideration is given to whether there was not some other way the situation could have been resolved. Less examined is how these civilian deaths have become something of a marketing opportunity for police technology companies, with large investments made into alternatives to police firearms, based on the assumption that less-lethal tactical options will reduce the number of fatalities and provide a technological ‘fix’ to the perceived crisis in police legitimacy. This chapter addresses the complexities of fatal police-citizen encounters involving mental illness, the ways in which they are typically covered in news media, and the ‘solutions’ that have been sought to prevent the police use of lethal force. The chapter asks what could be done better in relation to mental health crises in the community, examining more recent attempts in Australia to reframe the response as one that should be led by health professionals rather than police.