Reducing policing in mental health crises: A vision for university campuses

Abstract

University campuses could become leaders in developing alternatives to policing for managing public health and safety, yet, nearly all campuses rely on campus or local police to respond to mental health emergencies. Herein, we present the available evidence for campus mobile crisis intervention teams (MCITs) as an alternative to policing, consider what colleges and universities can learn from existing community MCIT models, and propose initial steps for the development and implementation of a campus MCIT.

Keywords:

• crisis response
• mental health
• policing

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.

Note

For comments and further information, address correspondence to Isabelle Lanser, Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, 1285 Franz Hall, Office A260B, Los Angeles, CA 90095 USA (email: [email protected]).