Police Officer Decision-Making During Mental Health Calls: A Qualitative Study

Understanding the decision-making process of police officers when responding to mental health calls is essential for optimizing the training they receive to engage with persons with a mental illness (PMI) and/or persons experiencing a mental health crisis. Research on officer decision-making in mental health contexts is lacking, and police officers’ subjective experience of this response is rarely represented. Using a qualitative approach, the current study aimed to provide a description of the decision-making processes of police officers responding to mental health calls, including decisions to appraise the situation as a mental health call and an enhanced understanding of the ways in which current mental health education and training influences police officer decision-making. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 30 police officers from two municipal police forces in Atlantic Canada. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis. Four overarching themes were conceptualized and connected to describe the decision-making process. These themes focus on the initial information from dispatch that officers consider, participants’ on-scene observational cognitions, external dynamics that constrain decision-making, and how experience drives response rather than training due to insufficiency in the latter. Findings from this study contribute insight into the unique experience of police officers, which is essential for improving the education and training officers receive and, ultimately, enhancing client outcomes.