G9.2.6 Individuals with Mental Illness
Chapter: Chapter 09: Patrol Services
Sub-Chapter: 9.2 - Special Circumstances
Effective Date: 09/23/2016
Revised Date: 08/30/2023
Rescinds: G9.2.6 – 11/17/2021 F9.2.6 – 11/2021
Purpose
To establish procedures for handling individuals with mental illness including guidelines for recognizing indicators of mental illness, assessing resources, and training.
General Order
The Indiana University Police Department (IUPD) provides guidelines for recognizing persons with a mental health condition and/or experiencing a mental health crisis. The IUPD will treat such individuals with dignity and respect and will provide access to law enforcement and community resources as available and appropriate. Initial and refresher training will be completed by officers and communications personnel.
Guidelines for recognizing indicators of mental illness (9.2.6 a)
The following may be indicative of a person with a mental health condition. Officers must be mindful that these behaviors may also signify a condition other than mental health (i.e. medical conditions, head injury, autism, Alzheimer’s etc.).
- Confusion or disorientation
- Diminished, inappropriate or muted feelings or emotions
- Strange behaviors including inappropriate dress or unusual social behaviors
- Insomnia or hypersomnia
- Significant weight loss not attributed to dieting
- Extremely animated or sluggish movements
- Fatigue or loss of energy
- Inability to concentrate
- Recurrent thoughts of death without suicide plan or attempt
- Manic symptoms: great happiness, inflated self-importance, rapid flights of thought, great energy, risk taking behaviors, enhanced physical activity with little to no sleep
- Concrete thinking: interpreting concepts literally with difficult time understanding abstract ideas
- Anxiety, including panic attacks, social phobias or obsessive-compulsive thought and behavior patterns
- Delusions: a fixed or rigid thought pattern which evidence to the contrary does not resolve (for example, believing they are the president)
- Hallucinations: a sensory perception despite no sensory stimulus (for example, hearing voices, seeing monsters, feeling bugs on their skin, etc.)
- Admission of specific diagnosis or of using psychotropic medication
- Expressing thoughts or ideas that seem illogical, bizarre, suspicious, or paranoid
- Trash or other items of little worth that appear to have been collected or are inexplicably retained
- Large amount of debris in or around their residence
- Strange decorations or ritualistic displays present in their residence
Procedures for assessing on- and off-campus mental health resources (9.2.6 b)
Officers will consider the necessity of involving additional resources in evaluating a person with mental health concerns. Further assessment by a Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) officer, negotiator, mental health provider, social worker, or any other appropriate resource may be required. The following are options for the officer:
- Release the individual with a referral made to a mental health provider.
- Place the individual in the custody of their family or friends.
- Consultation and/or evaluation with a mental health provider.
- Arrest and/or citation for a violation.
- Emergency detention in accordance with Indiana Code (IC) 12-26-5-0.5.
When placing a person under emergency detention, the officer will complete a case report in IUPD’s Records Management System. F9.2.6-1 Emergency Detention Form will also be completed and provided to the health care facility with a copy of the completed form uploaded to the other media section of the case report. When transporting a person to a facility who has been placed under Emergency Detention, the safety of the individual and those transporting the individual is of heightened priority. Officers will perform a thorough search and ensure the individual does not possess any weapons and restraints will be utilized during transport. All personal belongings (purses, bags, etc.) will be secured out of the reach of the individual being transported.
Indiana University students, faculty or staff who are being transported to a medical facility for a voluntary evaluation that pose no immediate threat to their own personal safety, or the safety of the transporting officer, should be secured and seat belted in the rear passenger compartment of the transport vehicle unhandcuffed. Handcuffing persons in crises during minor mental health episodes can exacerbate the situation. When possible and practicable, officers should consider utilizing an unmarked vehicle for transporting individuals for voluntary evaluation.
If available, IUPD vehicles equipped with plexiglass barriers can be utilized for transportation. Transporting officers should apply critical decision-making principles during their initial assessment of the individual to ensure necessary precautions are taken to ascertain the safety and confidentiality of the individual being transported without minimizing the safety of the transporting officer.
National, Indiana state, and Indiana University campus specific mental health services are available and will be provided as appropriate to individuals in need of these resources. Resources are available on the Protect IU website.
The Behavioral Consultation Team (BCT) or Behavioral Intervention Team (BIT) is available and provides consultation, makes recommendations for action, and coordinates campus resources in response to concerning behavior displayed by students, staff, or faculty. IUPD officers will complete reports as appropriate to the BCT or BIT.
Initial and refresher training for officers and communications personnel (9.2.6 c)
All officers and communications personnel will receive initial training on individuals with mental illness. All officers and communications personnel will receive refresher training at a minimum every two years.
Related Information
Indiana University Police Department
- F9.2.6-1 Emergency Detention Form
Indiana Code
- IC 12-7-2-130 Mental Illness
- IC 12-26-5 Emergency Detention
Mental health services and resources