Americans with severe mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed by police than other civilians, a study by an advocacy group said on Thursday.
Official and unofficial accounts of the hundreds of Americans killed yearly in encounters with police show that at least a quarter of those slain are severely mentally ill, the report by the nonprofit Treatment Advocacy Center said.
“At this rate, the risk of being killed during a police incident is 16 times greater for individuals with untreated mental illness than for other civilians approached or stopped by officers,” it said.
The study estimated that just under 4 percent of American adults were severely mentally ill but generated 10 percent of calls for police service. They occupy at least one in five prison and jail beds, it said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-police-mentallyill-idUSKBN0TT2Y420151210#uJDQ3UraBiEeymwG.97
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