Les pratiques d’intervention policières auprès des personnes en crise ou atteintes de troubles mentaux : le cas des agents de réponse en intervention de crise du Service de police de la Ville de Montréal

This research focuses on police responses provided by the RIC officers of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) with people in crisis or suffering from a mental disorder. The RIC agents are frontline patrol officers who have received complete training on the principles of intervention in times of crisis. This specialized response model is a proactive alternative that aims to improve police action in crisis situations and to ensure a better management of this population by the institutional resources. Deinstitutionalization of care and psychiatric services has led to an increased number of people with mental disorders in the community. Therefore, this increase has resulted in more frequent interactions between the police and this type of clientele. Interventions in times of crisis are unique and complex and require a higher level of understanding of human crises. The police have admitted that these interventions represent a significant part of their work and that traditional police training did not prepare them sufficiently to respond appropriately. In response to these considerations and in order to improve their abilities, the police forces equipped themselves with police response models specialized in crisis intervention. The most common approach is the crisis intervention team (CIT), also called the Memphis model. There are several variations of this model, but the main components are advanced training and consolidation of a partnership with the health system which both remain in all of these structures. The objective of this research is to explore the perceptions of the RIC officers, their partner and the officers waiting for training in order to better understand and contrast their visions and practices in a crisis or mental health context. We conducted 12 qualitative interviews with officers from SPVM. Overall, participants report that their interventions with people in crisis or with mental disorders are more rooted in a perspective of counselling. They also mention that communication, listening and trust must be privileged above all other techniques in situations that allow them.  Furthermore, force should be used only when needed, that is, when their safety or the safety of others is at risk. They also admit that the participation of mental health workers enables a deeper analysis of the situation or the mental state of the person targeted by the intervention. Secondly, in regards to the limits of traditional police training, the candidates have raised that there is a lack of knowledge in the field of mental health and a difficulty in assessing the mental state of the person as well as the needs for transportation. Thirdly, the RIC officers say that they have a better understanding of mental health issues, enhanced communication skills, a deeper analysis of the situation, a greater legal knowledge, an understanding of the operation of hospital services and a particular appreciation for the sharing of knowledge and the principle of containment. They also expressed the importance of the reports to document the evolution of the mental state of a person and they add that the time dimension plays a key role in the final resolution of the issue. As for the partners, they discuss similar benefits. However, after training, they recognize even more the importance of their role in the security of their partner and therefore, they pay more attention during these interventions.  Finally, non-trained agents formulate expectations concerning the development of tools and skills, which will be addressed in their training. Overall, the RIC agents and their partners changed their practices to align them with the philosophy of crisis intervention. They also have more confidence in their abilities and skills to intervene with people in crisis or suffering from mental disorders from the knowledge acquired in training.

Keyphrases: Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), Police intervention in crisis situation, People with mental illness, Crisis intervention response agent