On February 7, 2001, Robert Pickett fired two shots at the White House. In her article "White House Under Siege," former About Guide to Washington, DC. Linda DeLaine quoted a letter from Mr. Pickett in which he wrote, "I would rather not continue with life since I will only be subjected to further persecution." In "Shooting at the White House," Former About U.S. News Guide Clare Saliba confirmed that Mr. Pickett would undergo psychiatric evaluation. NAMI called this situation "suicide by cop," defining it as a incident "in which a suicidal individual deliberately seeks to create a dangerous situation so that police are forced to shoot." While it lasted no more than twenty minutes and no one inside the White House was ever in danger, this incident brought attention to the national issue of how confrontations with the mentally ill are handled by police.
Surveys by mental health advocates and law enforcement research organizations indicate that as many as one of every 10 police calls in the country--and one in 10 arrests--now involves a person afflicted with a mental disorder.
~LA Times
Consider a sampling of statistics from around the United States alone:
- Last year an article in the Los Angeles Times stated that in the previous six years, confrontations with the mentally ill ended in twenty-five fatal shootings by police in Los Angeles.
- An article from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that "investigation of police documents, county inquest records and witness accounts has found: One-third of the people killed by police showed signs of being emotionally disturbed or mentally ill at the time of the incident."
- In the October/November 1999 issue of NAMI's Advocate magazine, Donald G. Turnbaugh wrote that in less than 90 days, three mentally ill people were shot and killed by police in the Tampa Bay, Florida area.
Research shows that police arrest 20 percent of the mentally ill people before they receive treatment.
~CNN
Many consider the answer to be better police training. Douglas Turnbaugh writes, "Since the police are generally the first 'caregivers' to come into contact with a person with a mental illness in crisis, it is important to have someone there who can calm and contain the situation rather than exacerbate it" (NAMI Advocate, October/November 1999). Jenny Durkan, a civilian observer to the Seattle Police Department's firearms review board, furthers this picture, "The reality now is that dealing with the mentally ill ends up being a policing problem, much like we ask teachers to deal with youth problems" (Seattle Post-Intelligencer).
This reality has become quite apparent, and many programs are now being developed around the U.S. to respond to this. One such program, considered by the White House as an effective tool in these situations, is that found in Memphis, TN (CNN). This program involves the creation of crisis intervention teams. These teams consist of uniformed police officers who receive specialized training for handling confrontations with the mentally ill. These officers respond to regular service calls in their assigned patrol areas as well as all calls relating to "mental disturbances" throughout the entire jurisdiction (NAMI Advocate, October/November 1999). The Tampa Bay, Florida area has been working since 1997 to establish a program modeled after that found in Memphis. In March 1999, the first training sessions were held. CIT programs have also been established in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Portland, Oregon (NAMI Advocate, October/November 1999).
