A new Act introduced in the House would appropriate $100,000,000 annually until 2025 to improve law enforcement officers' interactions with persons with disabilities. The Safe Interactions Act would establish a grant program specifically for nonprofit organizations that serve disability populations to provide training to all levels of law enforcement.
Congressional findings attached to the Act note that individuals with disabilities are 2.5 times more likely to be victims of violent crime, 3 times more likely to be victims of a serious violent crime, and make-up between one-third to one-half of all individuals killed by law enforcement.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, approximately 64% of all prison inmates have mental health concerns, and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reports that 40% of all inmates have at least one reported disability.
The Act joins a growing list of mental health and training initiatives (including the Mental Health Justice Act) submitted by both federal and state lawmakers in the last year to curb both the prevalence of mental illness in the country and incidences in which police are required to use force. For the time being, the consensus among lawmakers appears to be to throw money at education, training, and awareness − the burgeoning list of related legislation at a federal level can be found at Congress.gov.
Law enforcement interaction with persons with disabilities
The Safer Interactions Act and the hundreds of pieces of legislation that have tried and failed (thus far) to address police interactions with persons with disabilities come as calls for mental health awareness and police accountability have become ubiquitous among the public.
In March 2021 Los Angeles Sheriff deputies reportedly shot and paralyzed a man with autism, who was not accused of a crime, because he was found to be difficult during an interview and allegedly reached for an officer's gun when attempts to handcuff him were unsuccessful − this, despite his therapist, who was on-site, attempting to explain to officers that he had an intellectual disability and anxiety.
Last September an Oklahoma man, Magdiel Sanchez, was shot dead for failing to follow a police officer's commands during a response to a report of a hit-and-run. According to reports, witnesses yelled to the officer "he can't hear you" before officers hit him with a stun gun and then shot him five times in the chest and torso. Officers reported that a pipe Sanchez was holding could be used as a weapon, though it was later determined that the pipe was used as a walking stick. Sanchez was deaf and had a developmental disability.
For the last decade, as body cameras have moved from trial implementation to public expectation, hundreds of accounts of miscommunication between police and persons with disabilities have been reported.
As awareness and outrage over such incidences have spread, many local governments are working to identify solutions unique to their communities. In Miami-Dade County, for example, the Criminal Mental Health Project (CMHP), which provides crisis intervention training (CIT) for officers and post-booking diversion services for arrested individuals, has been so successful its implementation shut down a jail in Miami and saved taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.
In Chicago, mental healthcare providers now respond in tandem with police officers in select areas in which mental illness-related calls are significant, to connect citizens with programs that provide treatment and diversion services. The City of Orlando runs a similar program with local mental healthcare providers.
As State and local government agencies work to identify ways to mitigate the effects of untreated mental illness and officers' inability to effectively communicate with all citizens, many are looking to Washington to provide leadership.
What is in the Safer Interactions Act?
In its current iteration, the Act would establish competitive grant programs for eligible nonprofit disability organizations "to administer enhanced training programs to law enforcement officers who may encounter or provide services to covered individuals [...]."
Specifically, the Act calls on nonprofits to provide training on safe interactions with individuals with mental health disabilities, schizophrenia, those who are deaf, deaf-blind, hard of hearing, blind, autistic, or those that have other intellectual or developmental disabilities, and those who are older or have chronic health conditions.
Applicants that wish to participate in the grant program would be tasked with increasing awareness, knowledge, and understanding of law enforcement officers about covered individuals and improving law enforcement's ability to identify persons with disabilities.
If the Act is passed − it has a long way to go − it would represent roughly $2,000,000 in funding for training per state annually. With that said, it isn't immediately clear how the funds would be allocated or if a funding formula was developed based on population or recidivism rates, though the Act specifically references the need to address training in rural areas as well.
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