This project uses qualitative methods to gain a deeper understanding of both citizen and police experiences.
The citizen experience
In this phase of the project, we will co-produce citizens’ stories of police engagement while experiencing mental health distress. This will involve meeting up with whānau in the community for one interview, followed by informal interactions that will generate a co-produced narrative.
The interviews will allow whānau to ‘communicate their story’ about police engagement. It is up to whānau to choose how they would like to tell their story. We will aim to try and seek experiences about whether police enacted a sense of (i) being calm and calming, (ii) connecting with the person, (iii) asking what is going on for the person, (iii) listening to the person, (iv) empathising with the person and (v) asking what would help the person. Overall, we are seeking to co-create stories that shed light on how police actions served to mitigate and/or exacerbate their mental distress. Ongoing informal interactions by phone, video-conferencing or, if possible, face-to-face with whānau will help enhance, explain and shape their final narrative.
We have a team of researchers who will support whānau to tell their stories, many of whom have their own experiences of mental distress and police interactions.
The police experience
There are different aspects to this phase of the project, each involving different methods to collect data.
Comms study
The communication centres have a significant role in directing the police response to a mental health event and also conduct wellbeing checks with citizens during mental health events. We are spending time observing the practices call takers at Auckland communication centre and also analyzing a sample of 111 calls. This will help us gain insights into how these professionals respond to the mental distress of citizens.
Case studies
Recognizing police experiences differ across the nation, we are carrying out three case studies of policing in action in the Counties Manakau, Bay of Plenty, and Canterbury police districts. The case studies will focus on the daily practices of police, gained through us doing ‘ride alongs’, as well as spending time at the station and with custody police. We will also talk with frontline officers about their experience of responding mental health events.
Interviews
We are also interviewing police across Aotearoa to gain insights from stakeholders with leadership in mental health and those working with Māori communities. This will help us understand the broader experience of responses to mental distress and to help us understand how police practices are shaped by institutional, cultural and socio-political contexts.
In the final phase, we will work to bring all the data together to help build a picture of police responses to mental distress in communities across New Zealand. This will help us then move on to creating recommendations for future police policy and practice.
Reports released!
Today, we are releasing two reports on our overall project. Our first comprehensive report, ‘Responding to people in mental distress,’ synthesises the whānau/citizen and police experiences. It details the research findings and recommends changes that can be made. The second report contains a collection of whānau/citizen stories for you to read and reflect upon, separate…
Creating your story with us
Have you encountered the police while experiencing mental distress? Would you like to collaborate with us to create a story of how the police responded to you and your whānau? If you are over 18 years and have experience a police encounter, we invite you to collaborate with us to produce your story on the…
Why do this project?
This project is important right now because police are increasingly called to support citizens in the community who are experiencing mental distress. Prevention First, the policy that guides police responses, identified mental health as one of six drivers of police demand. This policy directs police to practice in a preventative, victim-focused, way. However, we know…
What is this project about?
A preventative, victim focused, policy frames police practice in New Zealand. However, research tells us that whānau who experience mental distress are more likely to be victimised, socially excluded, and when in crisis, treated coercively by police. How then, do police put this policy into practice and how is it experienced by whānau when police…
Whānau/citizen stories 