ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on policing interactions with individuals who suffer from hearing loss or deafness, intellectual disabilities, and mental illness. The public attention received when officers use excessive force with mentally ill or other special needs suspects creates the public misperception that police are routinely involved in violent interactions with the populations. The chapter discusses the treatment of special needs offenders by police officers and the training available to help ensure that interactions between police officers and offenders with special needs occur in an ethical, legal, and effective manner. Specifically, some departments cite the lack of an available no-refusal psychiatric facility, insufficient training for dispatchers, and the expense required to implement the program. Despite the fact that most encounters with mentally ill persons involve relatively minor infractions and low levels of risk to officers, police must still be diligent when interacting with more serious offenders who suffer from mental impairment.
