Plural Policing and Mental Health Calls for Service: An Ethnographic Analysis of Information Sharing and Collaborative Responses to People in Mental Health Crisis

• In Event: Policing Responses to Mental Health Crises

Abstract

In response to the increasing mental health calls for service and decreasing police budgets, police services in Canada are adopting new collaborative approaches, such as Mobile Crisis Response Teams, and technologies to address police responses to people in mental health crisis. Drawing on ethnographic field observations with a mid-size urban police service, we explore the pluralization of policing and the changing landscape of contemporary policing in Canada. Our analysis explores the benefits and impediments to collaborative responses among police, social services and emergency department workers in response to mental health apprehensions.

Authors

• Carrie Sanders, Wilfrid Laurier University

• Jennifer A. A. Lavoie, Wilfrid Laurier University