Triaging Mental Health Emergencies: Lessons From Philadelphia

It is well established that police frequently encounter people experiencing mental health distress. In some instances, the same people are also experiencing other overlapping vulnerabilities like chaotic substance use and housing instability. Because calling 911 to get assistance for mental health crises—and to manage homelessness and public disorder—has become normalized, a large portion of these encounters are initiated through emergency dispatch systems. Police have been deployed as the primary response option through these systems despite reliance on formal training, skills, and tools centered on coercion and the exercise of criminal legal authority. As a result, these encounters often produce avoidable harm in the form of physical injury, stigmatization, and unnecessary entanglement with the criminal justice system through arrests, especially for misdemeanors. Beyond their iatrogenic harms, overreliance on police in mental health emergencies is also likely to result in missed opportunities to connect community members with supportive services and resources. Recognizing these problems ...