Stumbling from One Disaster to Another: The COVID-19 Pandemic and Mental Health Calls for Police Service across Canada.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on crime in Canada and internationally. However, less is known about the impact of the pandemic on police-reported mental-health-related incidents. We explore three types of mental-health-related incidents (suicide and suicide attempts, Mental Health Act apprehensions, and mental health [other]) against property and violent crimes, across 13 police jurisdictions in Canada. Despite an international decline in most crime types during COVID-19, we find general stability across police-reported mental-health-related incidents. These findings suggest that the change in social behaviour that reduced opportunities for crime did not have a similar effect on mental-health-related incidents. It also suggests that calls for increased police budgets to respond to expected increases in mental-health-related incidents may be unjustified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

La pandémie de COVID-19 a eu un impact considérable sur la criminalité au Canada et à l'international. On ne sait pas grand-chose cependant de l'impact de la pandémie sur les incidents liés à la santé mentale rapportés par la police. Nous explorons ici trois types d'incidents liés à la santé mentale (suicides et tentatives de suicide, arrestations dans le cadre de la Loi sur la santé mentale, santé mentale [autre]) dans le contexte de crimes contre les biens et de crimes violents, dans les territoires desservis par 13 corps policiers au Canada. Malgré une diminution à l'international de la plupart des types de crimes pendant la pandémie, nos résultats montrent une stabilité générale des incidents liés à la santé mentale rapportés par la police. Cela suggère que les changements de comportement social qui ont fait diminuer les occasions de commettre des infractions n'ont pas eu le même effet sur les incidents liés à la santé mentale. Cela suggère également que les appels à augmenter les budgets de la police afin de répondre aux hausses attendues des incidents liés à la santé mentale ne sont peut-être pas fondés. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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