The Role of Housing Status and Mental Health Clinicians on Police Decision Making

• In Event: Issues and Factors in Police Decision-Making

Abstract

The complicated nature of police encounters involving individuals experiencing homelessness provide officers a wide range of possible informal and formal responses. We conduct a mixed methods 2x2 vignette experiment drawing on a sample of 1163 police responses to a survey assessing scenario outcomes in hypothetical police-citizen encounters with housed and unhoused individuals that either do or do not include a mental health clinician. Estimates suggested no significant impacts of experimental manipulations on citation or arrest. However, in scenarios with the presence of a mental health clinician officers were significantly more likely to agree that they would conclude the encounter informally or coordinate services, regardless of housing status. Qualitative feedback from officers suggests that outcomes in police encounters are shaped by the context of the call and their shift (e.g., time of shift, available resources, call volume), complicating their ability to anticipate their decision making. Participants who received the clinician stimulus reported letting the mental health provider handle the encounter. Pairing police officers with an alternative public servant can result in outcomes that rely less on the criminal justice system. For individuals experiencing homelessness, this provides an opportunity to then divert individuals away from the criminal justice system and into services.

Authors

• Katharine L. Brown, The University of Mississippi

• Cody Telep, Arizona State University