As deaths mount, experts ask: Why are police involved in mental health crises?

Gershun Freeman died inside a Memphis, Tennessee, jail in October. A few months later, in March, Irvo Otieno died inside a state hospital shortly after police and hospital staff knelt on him for several minutes. In addition to being two other black men in the United States who died in police custody, their stories share another common thread: they were both arrested by police officers during a mental health crisis.

On October 5, 2022, Shelby County Sheriff’s deputies opened Freeman’s cell inside the county jail. Freeman lunged at the officers, who began punching, kicking and beat him with handcuffs, and pepper-spray him in an effort to subdue him, video shows. He died shortly after.

An autopsy by a county medical examiner found that Freeman died of an exacerbation of heart disease due to the physical altercation and officers subduing him, and classified the death as a homicide. Besides, Freeman had psychosis, a mental health condition that can cause people to perceive things differently from their surroundings, his family said.

Police had booked him four days earlier on charges of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault following an incident with his girlfriend a week before his death, Shelby County court records show.

freeman’s relatives and lawyers allege corrections officers were too violent with someone suffering from a mental health emergency. “I don’t know what’s going on in the United States, where law enforcement treats mental health issues like they’re criminal matters,” said civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump. saying during a press conference.

No charges have been filed against the guards, and there is no indication that any have been reprimanded. The attorneys said at a recent news conference last week that all of the guards seen on camera are still working inside the Shelby County Jail.

On March 3, Irvo Otieno he was pulled over because a neighbor called authorities claiming he was collecting lawn lights from a yard. The officers took him to a hospital for evaluation and then to jail, where they said he was “physically aggressive” toward the officers. (His family answers that there was some dispute).

While handcuffed in hospital custody, video footage showed at least 10 Henrico County Sheriff’s deputies and hospital staff kneeling on Otieno for 11 minutes. He became unresponsive and died on the floor on March 6. His death was a suffocation homicide, according to the state medical examiner’s office.

Seven Henrico County Virginia Sheriff’s Office officers and three hospital staff workers from that day have been charged with second-degree murder.

otieno Was diagnosed with bipolar and anxiety disorders as a teenager and had previous hospitalizations. However, according to her family’s lawyers, prison officials deprived Otieno of his medication during his three days in jail.

The idea that law enforcement should not be involved in the management of people experiencing a mental health crisis has grown after similar high-profile deaths in police custody.

“You can’t look at those videos and not think that police and law enforcement are ill-equipped to respond to calls to help people in crisis situations,” Daniela Gilbert, director of the Redefining Public Safety program at the University of California, told HuffPost. Vera Institute. “It really continues to emphasize the need for a different approach to these types of situations, and more broadly, a different approach to public safety in general.”

Police experts and reformers argue that the presence of an officer increases the risks of an interaction turning violent, even when the person never posed a threat. Similarly, experts told HuffPost that riots, welfare checks, trespassing and other minor situations should not require law enforcement.

Gilbert says these calls, like minor traffic violations, can often turn deadly due to the implicit bias held by officers.

“Our (American) culture of criminalization and the use of surveillance and aggressive arrest as a primary tool to address social problems, all of that is rooted in a violent legacy of slavery and white supremacy. And it’s inadequate and it doesn’t produce public safety,” Gilbert said.

“Playing around the edges of reform is not enough. Surveillance is integrated into the broader infrastructure of the criminal legal system.”

In 2022, the washington post analyzed incidents between 2019 and 2021 where police were called for mental health or wellness checks, and found 178 cases where law enforcement killed the people they were supposed to help.

“There is no need for someone with a gun to respond to these situations when people really need someone who is better equipped to give them the help and resources they deserve,” Gilbert said.

In 2022, a total of 110 people they were killed after police responded to someone who “behaved erratically,” according to a Mapping Police Violence study.

A recent report from the Treatment Advocacy Center found people with untreated mental illness were 16 times more likely to be killed by law enforcement.

Some areas have started to reform the way they handle mental health calls. For example, denver began to use social workers in some situations instead of the police, and in 2021 New York It also began sending out social workers for some 911 calls.

In Washington, DC, police started a pilot program that removes officers from some mental health calls and routes them to city social workers.

Other cities like Portland established street response teamsspecifically charged with addressing people with mental health issues, and has been successful, according to researchers from Portland State University. He street response team it operates unarmed weapons and is primarily trained to reduce encounters with civilians suffering from mental health issues.

New York legislators proposed “Daniel’s Law” this year, which would create special civilian teams across the state that are trained in nonviolent response. He followed the death in March 2020 of prudish danielwho was allegedly acting erratically before police in Rochester killed him.

His brother said that Prude experienced a mental health emergency after ingesting PCP and was naked in the street.

Prude’s family called 911, but things quickly turned violent after officers placed a “spit hood” over her head, a restraining device used to prevent people from spitting or biting. Prude was pronounced brain dead upon arrival at the hospital and died a few days later after being taken off life support. prudish was suicideaccording to his brother.

“Policy changes are needed to make mental health care more affordable and a more diverse therapist workforce to meet the needs of our communities,” said Erlanger Taylor, an associate professor of psychology at Pepperdine University. . “This can help ensure that people can get help before it becomes a crisis situation.”