Know Better, Do Better: Police, Children and Mental Health

An Op-Ed by
Veronica Dillard, LCSW, Counseling Supervisor
Barbara McCollett MA, BCBA, Behavior Supervisor

PHILLIPS School ~ Annandale

This was written in response to the recent release of video that showed Rochester, New York, police pepper-spraying a handcuffed 9-year-old Black girl as they struggled to put her into a police cruiser early this year.

Many say that we are dealing with two pandemics simultaneously: COVID-19 and systemic racism. While this may not be the root issue in the case of this 9-year-old, the impact of both of these pandemics cannot be ignored in this incident. One might question: Was this bad policing? Was this the impact of systemic racism? Was this the result of an increase in mental health needs of children during COVID? Was this the impact of trauma or toxic stress? Whatever the answer is, we see a little black girl fearful and in distress in the hands of at least five white officers while she was experiencing a mental health emergency. 

If trauma was ignored previously, the experience of two pandemics concurrently make it no longer avoidable. Additionally, the CDC reports mental health visits to the emergency room for children ages 5-11 increased by 24% from mid-March 2020 to October 2020 and that these visits remained higher than 2019, pre-COVID. This statistic suggests that our children need us, but they need us to intervene in a way that is helpful, not harmful. When a child is in a mental health crisis, there are two things that should be considered, and should have been considered in the case of this child.   

1. The fight, flight, freeze response is a biological response. When anyone is faced with a threat (actual or perceived) the brain responds, the amygdala is activated, survival response is initiated, hormones begin to flood the body and the various nervous systems go into action. For this little girl, we see the activation of the sympathetic nervous system which enlisted a fight response.  

2. The dignity and worth of a person should be respected even when someone is a danger to themselves or someone else. In social work, respect is imperative. One would think that when faced with a person in a mental health crisis, respect would remain at the forefront of the interaction because the person is in a very vulnerable state. For this little girl, unfortunately, we see that she was not respected even when she was crying out in fear asking for her father. 

In 2016 the US Department of Justice reported that there are nearly 18,000 Police Agencies within the US. Only 71 utilize ICAT training (Integrating Communications, Assessment, and Tactics) developed by PERF. ICAT focuses on topics such as self-management, emphasizing safe resolution over quick resolution, the value of demonstrating respect when attempting to defuse situations, and understanding the effects of trauma, disabilities, and fear on those experiencing crisis. This training is offered in an effort to “challenge conventional thinking” within law enforcement. However, it remains underutilized.

Police themselves recognize the need for change. A recent PERF Survey finds that priorities among police chiefs, nationwide, include increasing public trust (76%) and addressing calls for police reform (57%). While ICAT is not the only training curriculum utilized by police, there remains a lack of systematic law enforcement training that integrates components of the “Critical Decision-Making Model,” and its focus on Ethics, Values, Proportionality and the Sanctity of Human Life.

While law enforcement officers experience trauma in the course of their work daily, conventional attitudes discourage self-care in the way of emotional and mental health treatment. Research has proven that members of law enforcement are at higher risk of suicide, divorce, alcohol abuse, and stress disorders then the national average. Yet there is no prioritization of wellness for those relied upon to manage the most demanding crises.

While the majority of those in law enforcement will state that they became officers in order to make a difference in the world, they cannot do so without the proper training to meet the challenges they face daily. They cannot do so without the knowledge required to understand, relate to, and support those that they are tasked to “protect and serve.” They cannot do so without the self-care to return to work as healthy as possible to face their daily demands.

 Perhaps with additional training, a 9-year-old girl may have been helped to regain calmness without the use of handcuffs or pepper spray.

There is a familiar saying, "I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail." Let us make sure that our police officers have more in their tool boxes than hammers.