'16 Times More Likely Fatal:' Police Interaction with Mentally Ill Often Turns Out Negatively

A recent study by Johns Hopkins University on gun violence found nearly 1,800 people were shot by law enforcement each year from 2015 to 2020, with more than half being fatal.  People with untreated mental illness are especially vulnerable to such encounters.

The latest body camera footage of Sonya Massey shows her interacting with police 16 hours before a gunshot ended her life on July 6. 
 
The day before the deadly encounter in her home, Massey's mother Donna called 911 to report that her daughter was having a mental health episode.

"When's the last time you took your medicine," a medic asks Massey in the video. "It's written down – last night," Massey responded.

During her call, Donna Massey pleaded with police to not hurt her daughter.

The next day Sonya Massey called 911 to report a prowler. Officer Sean Grayson and his partner responded to the call. 
 
After searching outside, the officers entered the home, and the situation escalated. That's when Grayson shot Massey in the head killing her. Grayson faces multiple charges including murder and if convicted faces a sentence of 45 years to life.

Massey's death evokes painful memories and fear among some in the black community.

"A lot of people like, 'Oh I feel safe when I'm around the police or it's ok the police are here.' But sometimes for us it's like we never know if we are actually safe," said Drew Thomas, a student at Regent University.

Trauma Therapist Dr. Anita Phillips described that sentiment as collective trauma which can add to the distrust of police.

"I had the opportunity to support a young black woman who struggles with bipolar disorder, and she was experiencing a severe depressive episode, which had left her struggling with suicidal thoughts," Phillips shared during an interview with CBN News.  "I am on text on the phone supporting her and suggested that maybe it might be bad enough that she needed to call 911. And her response was, 'As much as my suicidal thoughts are tormenting me right now, I'm probably safer if I don't.'"

Lisa Dailey leads Treatment Advocacy Center, a non-profit that advocates for those with severe mental illness. She points out the increase in people calling 988 – the suicide and crisis hotline – since the new number's launch in 2022.

"There have been something like 10.8 million contacts with that system, which is massive, and that's been increasing over time," Dailey told CBN News.

According to Dailey, police interactions with such callers often turn negative.

"The likelihood of a person in a mental health crisis being involved in a fatal law enforcement encounter was 16 times higher than it was for people who were not involved in a mental health crisis at the time that they had a law enforcement interaction. So, it is a pretty stunning statistic," Dailey explained. 
 
Treatment Advocacy Center also notes that many reaching out to police during a mental health crisis may be experiencing something called Anosognosia, also called lack of insight. It is a biological condition that prevents a person from perceiving that they have a mental illness.

"It's present in anywhere between about 40%, 50% of individuals that have schizophrenia and bipolar disorder," said Dailey. "And the important thing to keep in mind in the context of a crisis call is that if a person does not believe that they have an illness, they will respond differently to law enforcement. This particular population is extremely vulnerable when they're in an interaction with law enforcement."

To better understand the problem, Dailey's organization has created a specific database to track what she calls preventable tragedies.

"A lot of the really negative outcomes that we see on a day-to-day basis with people that have severe mental illnesses, which can be anything from violence to increased rates of suicide to victimization to homelessness, a lot of those things are directly traceable to the fact that people are really not being able to access care," said Dailey. 
 
Research also shows notable racial disparities when it comes to policing and mental health calls.

Dailey said, "You do definitely see there is an increased impact to communities of color for really any kind of law enforcement encounter. A significant factor is communities of color, or marginalized communities may be less likely to get the timely interventions that they need. So, they may be in a situation where they're in the community for longer periods of time not being treated so that they escalate to crisis. And then once it gets to that crisis point, it's much more likely to result in a really negative outcome."

That, combined with the nation's overall mental health crisis, is leading more cities to enlist skilled health experts for assisting officers in the field. One example is the "Support Team Assisted Response" program also known as STAR underway in Denver, Colorado. 
 
Instead of automatically sending police officers on each 911 call, any request related to mental health distress leads to the dispatch of a paramedic and licensed behavioral health clinician, something experts say could have meant a different outcome for Sonya Massey.

"When they get that dispatch, they can go to the scene and they provide trauma-informed care, medical assessment, or triage, crisis intervention, de-escalation, transport as needed, and then connection to different resources or follow-up care," STAR specialist Evan Thompkins told CBN News. 
 
Despite being able to answer only half of the calls last year due to staffing issues, the program did respond to more than 7,000 calls.

"I think the police are pretty happy with STAR's involvement and they are able to really focus on the things that they are actually needed in," said Thompkins.

Dailey believes more resources to handle mental health calls for officers on the frontlines are crucial.

"It really may just be a situation where the person's medical symptoms are creating a situation that is sort of a fine line between what is a medical intervention that's needed and why might law enforcement need to be there for security purposes," said Dailey.

Insights and results that Daily and others believe are worth expanding across the country.

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