Should police respond to mental health and autism emergencies?
When California police fatally shot Ryan Gainer, an autistic Black 15-year-old, the public’s outrage also refocused larger debates around policing and neurodiversity. After all, people with developmental disabilities are far more likely to encounter police than neurotypical people. Critics have long said even well-trained officers can…
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I would love doctors and social workers to respond to violent episodes of autistic people instead of me. We had some parents not watching their 22 year old autistic son and he went out of the house with a bat and started smashing his neighbors windows. We ended up charging the parents and contacting adult protective services luckily no person was actually hurt in this. The victims who owned the windows to their homes and cars that were smashed were pretty upset at us for not charging the 22 year old. Its a no win solution for us.
We need a 4th emergency service to respond to mental health emergency. Like people having severe emotional breakdowns. Attending to self delete. People who are bipolar off their meds. Also also Take over a lot of the community caretaking like welfare checks. If a parent dies they can comfort the children. I’m sure they would do more. This is what I can think of. They should have unmarked cars (so they can be discreet) and undercover lights and sirens in case they need to respond to a life-threatening emergency like an attempted self delete.
Absolutely not. Police officers aren’t even doing their job right of “de-escalating conflict” why would they be good at calming down neurodivergent people? They’re more likely to stress them out even more or worse. I fully support sending in social workers and medical professionals to do the job
My family and friends know to NEVER call the police when I'm having a bad bipolar episode, the statistics don't lie… They're more likely to shoot or taze me than actually help.
I’m canadian and live in BC. I had a mental health crisis in my home, at 15, (i’m a white, 5’5 mentally ill teenage girl) and 5 police cars showed up to my house, guns drawn, after my mom called for help calming me down or getting to the hospital. I have bpd and was having an episode of suicidal ideation and rapid mood swings and it was terrifying, about 10 police came into our house with their guns drawn, and in my extremely unstable state, i begged them to shoot me, and pretty immediately they put all their weapons away, and most of them left. 3 Police stayed and their vests said “Mental Health Police” and they were honestly pretty helpful, even though i was handcuffed and transported to the hospital in the cop car. I just feel eternally grateful to have been born in north america and live in canada, and to be white and have everything i need and most everything i want. And that i have access to free healthcare, and free mental healthcare.
Why do I never leave my house?
The outside is where the incompetent police are, if i stay in here and never go outside I'll never have to deal with someone trying to kill me because they can't tell the difference between my autism and social anxiety and being a suspicious criminal.
I think that’s an absolutely terrible idea! Why would we make people who have a violent streak and cannot be trusted around minorities respond to calls ABOUT a minority!!!!!
NO! NO 100% NOOOOOOOO!!! LITERALLY WORST IDEA EVER
In Poland parents called police on their 20yo son, who was about to commit a suicide, and police killed him.
So absolutely not.
you’re wrong dude
Police should be educated about mental health conditions.
It would be better if people with more mental health knowledge responded
100% would rather figherfighter/EMT respond of i had a mental health emergency over a police officer. Police officers have no medical training and most typically don't even have de-escalation training. The only thing I see police should be involved with is to make sure the place is secure for the other first responders to do what they need to. Mental illness does not always equate to criminal behavior, but all criminal behavior has some element of mental illness behind it. I understand certain situations can be down right dangerous or if someone is acting erratically, it could result in a dangerous situation. But cops also tend to make situations worse, and there are no consistent training standards or education requirements. Other first responders need to go through certain certification training but a lot of police accadamies train like the military and act like every situation is a potential war zone. In a situation where an EMT vs a police officer has to approach me, one has their hand on their gun in this situation and one does not even have one. There is an automatic issue with that.
Bring back asylums
as an actually autistic person, no!!! i would prefer anyone other than a police officer helping me when i'm vulnerable
For me it's like pick a lane. They want to be heroes but they also want the public to be terrified of them at all times. You can't have the people who's favorite line is "GET ON THE FUCKING GROUND" also be the ones helping in a mental health emergency. Can't have it both ways.
I’m bipolar and while I’ve never had an issues that required the cops, it scares me to think what could/would happen.
Why the fuck would law enforcement respond to autism emergencies? Is being autistic against the law now????
I have ASD, and if someone calls the cops when im having a meltdown, its gonna get a lot worse. I do not trust cops at all.
Trusting police to help mental health situations is like trusting a glass and china shop to pablo the anti fragile objects bull
When the mental health emergency or something of the sort befomes voilent, the police should respond
People with mental issues or developmental disorders can still pose (even lethal) risk to others. I believe the police should always use as little force as possible to restrain anyone regardless of ability. People with experience dealing with mental health issues should be called in when the immediate physical threat is resolved.
No! Police don't know how to deal with mental health issues unless they deal with mental health issues themselves.
I’m sure calling a mental health professional as opposed to a cop is totally going to work when a maniac is holding people hostage
Ryan Gainer was charging police with a sharp gardening hoe when he was killed. I don’t want to put other healthcare professionals in harms way without a way to defend themselves if necessary.
Trusting American police to help with mental health emergencies is like trying to convince a wolf not to kill you after you just shot its pup. In the end, all that will be left is a dead body.
We need community response!!
To the surprise of absolutely no one NO! Over here in Europe most places have a mental health response team that falls under medical first responders or social medicine. I don't feel I need to explain this. It's a medical emergency it should be handled by medical staff.
Maybe sending someone with a gun on their side isn't the best idea for someone (especially kids) who are struggling with mental health. Maybe send people who are trained to deal with mentally ill people/neurodivergent people like social workers instead.
So many twig boys with clipboards and iPads are about to get lit up 💀
Let's clean the gene pool together
But those type of people aren’t in the best mind set and if they have access to weapons your social worker will be smoked without having any means to defend one’s self
Training? They don't even have enough police training to deal with your day to day people without developmental issues… Extra training… Who do you think we are… One of the wealthiest nations in the world.. oh wait 🤔
Wasn’t this guy charging at the police with some sort of weapon
This kind of stuff is why the US is a crime ridden shithole.
even in small scenarios it's terrifying when they respond. they come in my house for a wellness check with big stomping clomping boots and don't have any voice besides their outside voice and then act surprised when i seem scared of them like… you're in my home stomping and yelling when i was already in a bad place. idk how chill you expect me to be lol
The fact that you mention autistic AND black shows that you’re part of the cult. If it was just about mental health right now you wouldn’t be mentioning race but OF COURSE, AS USUAL, y’all can’t go 5 seconds without the “blacks r oppressed” narrative
This is what the whole defind the police thing was about. Send people out that ARENT bullies with superhero syndrome ans are actially trained to talk to people
I once ran from my school as a child, they had been horribly abusive locking me in the 'special education' department all day denying me my education.
So I tried to run home they called the police it was the middle of winter snowing, all i had on was a t-shirt and some jeans. So here i am freezing fearing for my life and these two big men start threating to tase little 8 year old me. I fall into a snow bank and get manhandled into the back of the police car.
The policing system is messed up they encourage horrible people to become officers and anyone do does become one to actually help people are soon fired for helping people or have to quit because the want to help people.
Guys remember, cops aren't invincible and have a weakness to knives in the neck
Police shouldn’t respond to anything they always escalate and exert their desire to kill or maim
No abolish the police
Cops are trained to subdue, arrest, fight back and even kill if they deem it nessecary. They're barely even trained to deal with mental health issues and they most certainly aren't trained to assist with autistic meldowns. People in crisis aren't inheirently dangerous and they need help the police doesn't know how to provide. So if the police are sent there the police will do what they were trained to do
Most importantly Ryan was black
As someone with asd I got to say cops should not get involved. It grinds my gears when someone who doesn't know what they're talking about ordering me around.
A lot of time the police get called because most people have no idea what to do in a mental health emergency. Unfortunately, just about the worst thing you can do is to call someone else that has no idea what to do…but also a gun, handcuffs, and a need to insert themselves into the situation.
as an autistic person
NO
the cops want us dead, no training will help this