Over the weekend, someone challenged my assertion that this is a growing problem. I put together the data from LPD's records management system yesterday, querying each year since 2001 for two incident codes: 56400 and 56466. These two codes describe mental health cases to which police officers were dispatched. Here's what I found: there has been consistent, steady growth, from 1,276 incidents in 2001 to 2,294 last year. That is an 80% increase.
Lincoln's population, however, has increased since 2001, too. To be specific, there are 35,004 more souls in the Capital City today than in 2001. If you calculate the rate of mental health dispatches per 100,000 population, it has grown from 554 to 864. Thus the population-adjusted increase in mental health calls is 56%. That is still a mighty large increase, even when population is taken into account.
No two ways about it: the cops and paramedics are called in mental health crises far more frequently today than in the past.
15 comments:
Do you think any of this is related to the knee-jerk over-prescribing of SSRIs and other psychiatric drugs?
9:05,
Not my area of expertise. I think some of it is the result of funding for mental health services not keeping pace with the need for those services. Everything eventually devolves upon the police and the E-room.
Also perhaps the ease with which a person can text, e-mail, or call an acquaintance, friend, estranged bf/gf/spouse/ex or family member - or even the world in general via social media - that they're suicidal. It's usually just a play for attention, but who knows for sure. Then what does the contacted person do most of the time? They call 911 and that starts the ball rolling.
10:13,
Good point.
A little off topic. But there has been an increased problem with motorcyclists speeding around this town. Not just a few miles over the speed limit. I have seen them and heard them going at high rates of speed. Ex: I'm on hwy 2 going 45 miles per hour and they fly by you and you know they are going 60+ miles per hour. My question is this can LPD find away to stop this?
4:47,
Definitely a problem, and I'm open to suggestions.
The "motorcycles" referred to are most likely what I call crotch rockets. My suggestion is, when you see one coming up fast and about to pass you, signal and start moving into that lane. Then, swerve back into your own lane as if you hadn't seen the bike coming, just in time to watch the bike tumbling end for end as it goes into the ditch. One at a time, this will eventually reduce the numbers of such idiots.
Of course, this suggestion is not really serious. On the other hand, a person speeding has no claim to right of way, so you would probably not get a ticket. Of course, you'd have to be able to prove the biker was speeding.
Chief,
Since 2001, has the number of officers for the city increased, stayed the same, or decreased? Sounds like more calls???
How about letting officers chase down those motorcycles? I have seen a bike flying by a cop twice and nothing is done!!!
"How about letting officers chase down those motorcycles?"
You must be unfamiliar with Nebraska's "strict liability" law, because if you were, the question would answer itself.
The crotch rocket riders will eventually take care of the problem on their own through attrition. I'm not saying they should get away with riding like they often do; but, chasing them is certainly not the answer. An officer would have a very difficult time chasing down a motorcycle without a great deal of help, and it's probably more likely some innocent person, or the officers themselves are going to get hurt. A good pair of eyes or a camera should be all that is necessary. Get the plate number and/or a good description, and the offender can most likely be located without risk to the public. Then, impound the bike and revoke their driver's license permanently (and throw them in jail for a while, too).
"revoke their driver's license permanently"
Under which statute(s), specifically, would you do this permanent revocation?
Under a new one, if necessary. This guy, and many others like him, have proven they can't, or won't, obey the law, and I don't care which it is. They should never have a license again after multiple DUIs. In many countries, they'd either be executed or jailed for life. Maybe that's the new statute we should be seeking here.
Oops, wrong topic; was thinking of another article from the paper this morning....but, to answer 10:07's question: I'd still like to see a permanent revocation of one's license when they willingly drive (or ride) in such a reckless manner. It's pretty much pure luck that they don't kill someone in the process, and luck doesn't hold forever.
What proportion of the mental health calls involve the relevant party being "off their meds", meaning either having ceased or altered the dosage of such without such a change being prescribed by a doctor, and/or the party doing "self-medication" with non-prescribed substances?
I didn't write this book ("My Brother Ron: A Personal and Social History of the Deinstitutionalization of the Mentally Ill"). You probably won't allow this post to go live because it's akin to plugging a book, but it's well researched and quite good, and I thought it might pique your interest. Here's a summary, I believe from the publisher:
America started a grand experiment in the 1960s: deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill. The consequences were very destructive: homelessness; a degradation of urban life; increases in violent crime rates; increasing death rates for the mentally ill. My Brother Ron tells the story of deinstitutionalization from two points of view: what happened to the author's older brother, part of the first generation of those who became mentally ill after deinstitutionalization, and a detailed history of how and why America went down this path. My Brother Ron examines the multiple strands that came together to create the perfect storm that was deinstitutionalization: a well-meaning concern about the poor conditions of many state mental hospitals; a giddy optimism by the psychiatric profession in the ability of new drugs to cure the mentally ill; a rigid ideological approach to due process that ignored that the beneficiaries would end up starving to death or dying of exposure.
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