Concentrations and Specialization of Mental Health–Related Calls for Police Service

ABSTRACT

Over the past two decades, research has consistently shown that criminal activity concentrates at places. Places also exhibit specialization in criminal activity, largely based on criminal opportunities. However, recent research has also shown that criminal events are only a relatively small fraction of calls for police service, generally 20–30%. The authors investigate the spatial concentrations and spatial specialization of mental health–related calls for police service in a number of municipalities in British Columbia. Overall, the authors find that mental health–related calls are more concentrated in space than criminal events and that specialization relates to social- and health-related services for the mentally ill.

KEYWORDS:

• Mental health
• policing, location quotient
• spatial regression

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank each of the four police departments who provided data and support to this project. This partnership was made available through Simon Fraser University’s Institute for Canadian Urban Research Studies and the participating police departments in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹. In the late 20^th century, scholars suggested that two additional community factors that were believed to decrease social cohesion were included: family disruption (Sampson, 1987) and urbanization (Sampson & Groves, 1989). These variables were tested again by Lowenkamp, Cullen, and Pratt (2003) to demonstrate their continued relevance.