To effectively respond to scenes involving people with mental illnesses (PWMI), many police departments in the United States have implemented police response models (PRMs) that improve officer training on mental illness and/or solicit cooperation with mental healthcare providers. No existing study has focused on examining police chiefs’ attitudes toward the effectiveness of PRMs. To help fill this gap in the literature, the current study analyzed survey data (N = 190) collected from police chiefs working in Pennsylvania to estimate the extent of favorability toward PRMs and to examine if the predictors of favorability toward PRMs vary across types of PRMs (i.e., CIT, co-response models, and other models with reduced training hours). Findings revealed that police chiefs showed favorable attitudes toward the CIT and co-response models, and their perceptions of these models were associated with the adoption of a PRM in their agencies. Further, results from multivariate analyses indicated that there are some differences in the factors that predict chiefs’ favorability toward the CIT and co-response models compared to other models with reduced training hours (OMRTH). Potential policy implications and directions for future research in light of these findings are discussed within.

为了有效应对涉及精神疾病患者 (PWMI) 的场景，美国的许多警察部门已经实施了警察应对模型 (PRM)，以改善警官对精神疾病的培训和/或寻求与精神保健提供者的合作。现有的研究都没有侧重于检查警察局长对 PRM 有效性的态度。为了帮助填补文献中的这一空白，当前的研究分析了调查数据（N = 190) 从在宾夕法尼亚州工作的警察局长那里收集，以估计对 PRM 的好感程度，并检查对 PRM 的好感的预测因素是否因 PRM 类型而异（即 CIT、共同响应模型和其他训练时间减少的模型） ）。调查结果显示，警察局长对 CIT 和共同响应模型表现出良好的态度，他们对这些模型的看法与他们的机构采用 PRM 相关。此外，多变量分析的结果表明，与其他减少培训时间 (OMRTH) 的模型相比，预测酋长对 CIT 和共同响应模型的好感的因素存在一些差异。文中讨论了根据这些发现对未来研究的潜在政策影响和方向。