Exploring the Role of the Environmental Context in the Spatial Distribution of Calls-for-Service Associated with Emotionally Disturbed Persons

A subset of persons with mental illness is at risk for becoming involved with the police, and an even smaller subset of emotionally disturbed persons (EDP) has multiple contacts over time. Not much is known, however, about the nature of these contacts and how the patterns of everyday life can lead to the initial contact with, and type of police response to, EDP. To address this issue, a spatial point pattern test is used to compare the spatial distributions of calls-for-service involving EDP (n = 2,847) to all other police contacts (n = 137,901) in an urban Canadian setting. Findings indicate that there are significant variations among these two calls-for-service, with EDP calls clustering on very few street segments. To better understand this clustering, a series of place attractors that may affect EDP are analyzed. It is suggested that a link may exist between the density of place attractors and that of EDP calls-for-service.