Working Paper: NBER ID: w31391
Authors: Monica Deza; Thanh Lu; Johanna Catherine Maclean; Alberto Ortega
Abstract: We study the effect of community access to mental health and substance use treatment on police officer safety, proxied with on-duty assaults on officers. Police officers often serve as first-responders to people experiencing mental health and substance use crises, which can place police officers at risk. Combining agency-level data on police officer on-duty assaults and county-level data on treatment centers that offer mental health and substance use care, we estimate panel fixed-effects regressions. An additional four centers per county (the average annual increase observed in our data) leads to a 1.3% reduction per police agency in on-duty police officers assaults.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: I10; I12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| increased access to behavioral health treatment (I19) | improved management of behavioral health disorders (I19) |
| improved management of behavioral health disorders (I19) | reduction in on-duty assaults against police officers (J45) |
| increased access to behavioral health treatment (I19) | reduction in on-duty assaults against police officers (J45) |
| increased access to behavioral health treatment (I19) | lower probability of violent interactions between police and civilians (J45) |
| lower probability of violent interactions between police and civilians (J45) | reduction in on-duty assaults against police officers (J45) |