Specialized Police-Based Mental Health Crisis Response: The First 10 Years of Colorado's Crisis Intervention Team Implementation.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the implementation of crisis intervention teams by law enforcement agencies in Colorado. METHODS: Rates of Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) use, arrests, use of force, and injuries were assessed during 6,353 incidents involving individuals experiencing a mental health crisis. Relationships among original complaint, psychiatric illness, substance abuse, violence risk, and disposition of crisis calls were analyzed. RESULTS: Rates of SWAT use (<1%), injuries (<1%), arrests (<5%), and use of force (<5%) were low. The relative risk of transfer to treatment (versus no transfer) was significantly higher for incidents involving psychiatric illness, suicide threat or attempt, weapons, substance abuse, and violence potential. CONCLUSIONS: Use of force or SWAT, arrests, and injuries were infrequent. Suicide risk, psychiatric illness and substance abuse, even in the presence of a weapon or violence threat, increased the odds of transfer to treatment, whereas suicide risk lowered the odds of transfer to jail.

Sexual offender containment: use of the postconviction polygraph.

Victims of sexual assault are unlikely to report the crime. For many sexual offenders, then, their sexually deviant behavior remains largely unknown except for crimes that result in arrest or notification to social services. Little is known about the offender's past behavior and little will be known about the offender's future abusive behavior. It is within this context that the containment approach for managing sexual offenders becomes critical to protecting future victimization by known offenders. This paper describes the need to incorporate information learned from the postconviction polygraph examination into intense treatment and criminal justice supervision. Age of onset and frequency and variety of deviant behavior are known risk factors, probably because they reflect the extent to which deviancy is part of the offender's lifestyle. Treatment and supervision plans must incorporate this information, along with the risk presented by these offenders to very specific age and gender groups. This study of data collected on disclosures made by 180 convicted sexual offenders (most were convicted of crimes against children) during the course of four different treatment/polygraph programs found that 39% had a history of sexually assaulting adults, 31% had sexually assaulted both male and female victims, 36% had engaged in bestiality, and two-thirds of the incest offenders had assaulted victims outside the family. Complete information is necessary for treatment providers and supervising officers to develop meaningful and relevant treatment and supervision plans, and for imminent, situational risk factors to be managed and contained.