How the pandemic changed police response to mental health needs in one city

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic not only threatened individuals' physical health but also seriously strained mental health and access to care. A new study has analyzed police data from one U.S. city before and after the start of the pandemic to examine whether the frequency of mental health calls for service and police-initiated stops for mental health reasons changed. Police involvement in responding to mental health situations changed slightly after COVID-19 began, with the greatest impact related to dispatched calls in early 2020.