The City of Apache Junction is located to the east of the Phoenix metropolitan area. The city has an estimated population of over 36,000 with an influx of over 20,000 seasonal residents in the winter months. The Apache Junction Police Department has 57 sworn officers. In 2009, the average ratio of officers to citizens in the US was about 2.3 officers per one thousand residents. One in four adults, approximately 61.5 million Americans experiences mental illness in a given year. One in 17, about 13.6 million live with a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia, major depression or bipolar disorder. (National Alliance on mental Illness) These statistics illustrate the growing concern for policer officer interactions with persons with mental illness.
The City of Apache Junction is seeking training opportunities to establish and implement innovative programs designed to manage the risk of encounters with persons with untreated mental illnesses for department police officers, detention officers, dispatch personnel and the community resource coordinator.
Law enforcement officers are increasingly the ones responding to people with mental illnesses who are in crisis. The safety of both law enforcement officers and citizens is compromised when law enforcement responds to crises involving people with mental illnesses who are being treated and more prominently not being treated regardless of their involvement in a situation as a victim or offender. Approximately 60 percent of adults, and almost one-half of youth ages 8 to 15 with a mental illness received no mental health services in the previous year. (National Alliance on mental Illness)
Recent cases involving law enforcement and citizens with mental illness have gained notoriety in the news. This has sparked conversations and action on behalf of mental health professionals and law enforcement on how to recognize, handle and communicate with the mental health population.
Safety of officers is jeopardized
In 1998, people with mental illnesses killed law enforcement officers at a rate 5.5 times greater than the rest of the population.*
In 1998, law enforcement officers were more likely to be killed by a person with a mental illness (13 percent) than by assailants who had a prior arrest for assaulting police or resisting arrest (11 percent).*
Safety of people with mental illness is jeopardized
People with severe mental illnesses are killed by police in justifiable homicides at a rate nearly four times greater than the general public.*
In Phoenix, incidents in which police used force with mentally ill people tripled between 1998 and 2003.*
In 2002, 30 chronically mentally ill people had confrontations with Phoenix police that ended with force, from physical restraint to shooting.*
(*Law enforcement and people with severe mental illnesses, by Dr. E. Fuller Torrey mentalillnesspolicy.org)
The City of Apache Junction is located to the east of the Phoenix metropolitan area. The city has an estimated population of over 36,000 with an influx of over 20,000 seasonal residents in the winter months. The Apache Junction Police Department has 57 sworn officers. In 2009, the average ratio of officers to citizens in the US was about 2.3 officers per one thousand residents. One in four adults, approximately 61.5 million Americans experiences mental illness in a given year. One in 17, about 13.6 million live with a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia, major depression or bipolar disorder.
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The City of Apache Junction’s crime prevention programs require training for the facilitator, program coordinator, program participants and volunteers. The TTA will help the city create curriculum, train the trainers, and provide ongoing training to the Program Coordinator to ensure the Crime Prevention programs will be relevant and affective. Training to include: curriculum development, creation of a training program, training scholarships, and conference and meetings. The department’s crime prevention program also seeks to establish a program evaluation process to use the feedback to create best practices for the community. An evaluation of the specific needs of the area and the type of programming would be valuable in building a strong program. Technical assistance to include: an on-site study and document review.
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