The End of Policing

Vitale begins this chapter with a discussion on the limitations of policing people with mental illnesses (PMI). Limited to taking PMI to psychiatric emergencies, arresting them, or attempting to resolve the issue informally (77), police officers are ill-equipped to handle these scenarios. They lack the formal training to do so. Equally, what training they do possess is by its nature confrontational. Part of the issue, he argues, is that police are trained to view every scenario as a potentially deadly one. This is attributed to the frequent use of firearms by police officers when responding to 911 calls related to PMI. Furthermore, “suicide by cop” has become a growing problem for police forces across the US. The willingness of police officers to use their firearms is precisely why it is growing. In contrast, British police, who are unarmed, use less lethal means when dealing with PMI (78). Furthermore, they rely on Mental Health Liaison Officers (MHLO) (79) to diffuse situations that are not an immediate danger to themselves or the general public.

Despite efforts to train police officers about PMI and their potential mental illnesses, Vitale argues that this is unrealistic and unreasonable. First, police officers are trained to maintain law and order, not act as a counselor for a PMI.