The Supreme Court decided earlier this month to take up this question. Their decision may impact how police departments, including those in Colorado, respond to a growing crush of emergency calls involving people in mental-health crises, and the steps police have to take before using deadly force.
The case was brought by Teresa Sheehan, a mentally ill woman who was living in a group home in San Francisco when a social worker called 911 out of concern that she posed a danger to herself and others. When two police officers arrived, Sheehan threatened to kill them if they entered her room. They did, she raised a knife, and police shot her at least five times.
Sheehan, who lived, is arguing in part that police violated her rights under the ADA’s mandate that people with disabilities be accommodated in public services.
Mark Silverstein, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union’s Colorado chapter, said a Supreme Court decision in Sheehan’s favor could affirm that police need to take into account the mental disabilities of the people they’re dealing with, especially when it comes to the use of force.
“A case like this highlights the situation that police around the country have found themselves in,” said Silverstein, “where their actions could lead to an escalation where they wind up having to use deadly force, or where another course of action could lead to a de-escalation that could resolve the situation without the need to resort to deadly force.”
Sheehan’s case has echoes in Denver, where more than half of the 11 people shot by law enforcement last year showed signs of mental illness, according to a report earlier this year by the Office of the Independent Monitor, a city watchdog.
The targets of Denver police shootings included Samuel Clementi, who was wielding scissors when he was shot in his home at a Veterans Affairs residential facility in April 2013. An employee of the facility had called out of concern that Clementi, whom she said had schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder, was suicidal.
Clementi survived gunshot wounds to his lower rib cage, right hand and left arm.
Less than a month later, Christopher Dubois was shot dead after his ex-girlfriend called 911 reporting concern for his welfare. Officers said they believed he was armed and were afraid he would take hostages; his gun was later found to be unloaded and incapable of firing.
And in August 2013, John David Tuck was shot dead by police after waving a knife at pedestrians on Welton and 29th Avenue. As in the cases of Clementi and Dubois – and Sheehan – 911 callers had made note of his apparent mental illness.
Commander Matthew Murray told Rocky Mountain PBS I-News that the department revamped its CIT, or crisis intervention training program, in 2014, and that all officers are required to attend the training intended to offer tools for de-escalating crises involving people with mental illnesses.