Chapter : Recommendation 5.3: Establish protocols for interactions with people in crisis or with mental health, developmental disabilities, or substance use disorders.
Recommended Best Practices

Recommendation 5.3: Establish protocols for interactions with people in crisis or with mental health, developmental disabilities, or substance use disorders.

Crisis intervention plans must include policies that address interactions with people in mental health, developmental disability, or substance use crises.[i]Ideally, they should provide specific examples and necessary skills for handling encounters without force or arrest.[ii]Community members, especially those with mental health and developmental disabilities, should participate in the development of these policies and procedures and in the development and delivery of training.[iii]

Departments should provide specialized disability training that addresses sensitivity, awareness, and effective communication. Officers must have the skills to interact with people with disabilities so that encounters do not escalate or result in the use or misuse of force. People with developmental disabilities, for example, may not make eye contact or communicate verbally, and they may make sudden movements. Officers who mistake this behavior for noncompliance might escalate the encounter,[iv]and unexpected or sudden actions by people with disabilities could be misconstrued as suspicious activity.

The ADA requires police officers to be able to communicate effectively with people with disabilities.[v]American Sign Language (ASL) is the primary language for people who are Deaf and hard of hearing, but it may also be the preferred and most effective way to communicate with people who are nonverbal. By working with disability experts and people with developmental disabilities, departments can create protocols for interactions with people with disabilities. This should involve hiring people who speak ASL who can serve as interpreters.

In 2015, a Chicago police officer shot and killed Quintonio LeGrier and his neighbor, Bettie Jones, when responding to a call about a domestic disturbance. The officers who arrived on the scene did not know that LeGrier was experiencing a mental health crisis and therefore did not use crisis intervention techniques.

Jones answered the door as LeGrier was coming down the stairs with a baseball bat; officers shot both of them. LeGrier had called the police three times to complain about being threatened before his father called 911 to report a domestic disturbance with his son. The dispatcher did not identify any of the calls as a crisis, hung up on LeGrier the first time he called, and did not dispatch CIT officers to the scene.

Source: Jeremy Gorner & Annie Sweeney, Quintonio LeGrier called 911 three times before a Chicago cop shot him,  Chi. Tribune (Jan. 26, 2016), https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-quintonio-legrier-police-shooting-trial-20180621-story.html

[i]Mark G. Peters & Philip K. Eure, N.Y.C. Dep’t of Investigation, Putting Training into Practice: A Review of NYPD’s Approach to Handling Interactions with People in Mental Crisis 9 (2017) http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/oignypd/downloads/pdf/Reports/CIT_Report_01192017.pdf; Randolph Dupont, et al., Univ. of Memphis, Crisis Intervention Team Core Elements 10 (2007), http://cit.memphis.edu/pdf/CoreElements.pdf(“Policies and procedures are a necessary component of CIT. They provide a set of guidelines that direct the actions of both law enforcement and mental health officials.”).

[ii]Mark G. Peters & Philip K. Eure, N.Y.C. Dep’t of Investigation, Putting Training into Practice: A Review of NYPD’s Approach to Handling Interactions with People in Mental Crisis 8-9, 33 (2017) http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/oignypd/downloads/pdf/Reports/CIT_Report_01192017.pdf.

[iii]SeeRandolph Dupont, et al., Univ. of Memphis, Crisis Intervention Team Core Elements 10 (2007), http://cit.memphis.edu/pdf/CoreElements.pdf(“Due to the large number of stakeholders in CIT, it is important that these guidelines be designed by all those affected.”); Mecklenburg Cty., N.C. Health Dep’t, Crisis Intervention Team, https://www.mecknc.gov/healthdepartment/communityhealthservices/tjp/pages/cit.aspx?redirect=charmeck  (last visited Dec. 23, 2018) (“Consumer and family advocates are integrally involved in the design and implementation of local CIT programs.”).

[iv]); See e.g., David Lohr, Police Allegedly Beat Pearl Pearson For Disobeying Orders He Could Not Hear, Huffington Post (Jan. 15, 2014), https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/15/pearl-pearson-police-brutality_n_4603445.html;See alsoVanderbilt Kennedy Center for Excellence in Developmental Disability, Healthcare for Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Toolkit for Primary Care Providers:  Communicating Effectively, https://vkc.mc.vanderbilt.edu/etoolkit/general-issues/communicating-effectively/(last visited Feb. 25, 2019); Nat’l Inst. on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, Autism Spectrum Disorder: Communication Problems in Children, https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/autism-spectrum-disorder-communication-problems-children(Mar. 23, 2018).

[v]Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12131-12165 (2018); U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Civil Rts. Div., Disability Rights Section, ADA Requirements Effective Communication (Jan. 31, 2014), https://www.ada.gov/effective-comm.htm.