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Identifying Chicago's High Users of Police-Involved Emergency Services
Andrea Ruth Tentner1, Amy Spellman1, Allison Paulson1
1Andrea Ruth Tentner, Amy Spellman, Cameron Day, and Ruth Coffman are with University of Chicago Urban Labs, Chicago, IL. Allison Paulson and Tonie Sadler are with University of Chicago Urban Labs, and University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration, Chicago. Harold A. Pollack is with University of Chicago Urban Labs, University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration, and University of Chicago Biological Science Division, Department of Public Health Sciences.
Objectives:
To identify individuals at risk for behavioral health (BH)-involved encounters with police in Chicago, Illinois.
Methods:
We linked Chicago Police Department (CPD) arrest and Fire Department (CFD) BH-involved ambulance event data. We identified at-risk individuals who accumulated at least 1 BH-involved ambulance and at least 1 arrest event between May 2016 and April 2017. We identified a high-use subgroup displaying most intensive services use. We identified high-use locations with highest volume of ambulance events with only CFD data.
Results:
Of 83 392 individuals and 116 105 events in the linked emergency events data, 1842 at-risk individuals accounted for 2.2% of individuals, 5.6% of all events, and 16% of BH-involved CFD events with police involvement. A total of 330 high-use individuals accounted for 0.4% of individuals, 2% of events, and 4.7% of CFD events with police involvement. Top-100 high-use locations accounted for 9% of CFD events, and individuals of high-use location events are largely distinct from high-use individuals.
Conclusions:
Integrated police and ambulance data hold promise to identify individuals at risk for BH-involved encounters with police and to support proactive interventions to prevent or improve response at these encounters.