Toronto Police release seven years of mental health and persons in crisis call data

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The Toronto Police Service has released seven years worth of data over mental health and persons in crisis calls.

The Persons in Crisis Calls for Service and Mental Health Act Apprehensions Data is available for the public on new downloadable open datasets.

It shows police calls for attempt or threaten suicide occurrences, as well as drug overdoses.

Findings from the data shows Mental Health Act Apprehensions have increased 7.4% on average, year-over-year, since 2014, and Persons in Crisis Calls for Service Attended have increased 6.4% on average, year-over-year, since 2014.

In 2020, 23.3% of Persons in Crisis Calls for Service Attended resulted in a Mental Health Act Apprehension.

“The Toronto Police Service recognizes the complexity of mental health and addictions issues and our Strategy demonstrates our ongoing commitment to effective, compassionate and respectful responses to these complex issues,” said Chief of Police Jim Ramer.

“Making this information openly available is one step we are taking towards sharing our progress with the community and our partners.”

The Mental Health Act Apprehensions data shows how often an apprehension has been made under the Mental Health Act as an officer has to have grounds someone is acting disorderly or is at risk of causing harm.

Police also launched its dashboard to provide the public with access to recommendations made in the Mental Health and Addictions Strategy.

The information visualizes the data and illustrates trends for call types, the apprehensions made, and trends.

The dashboard can be found at https://www.torontopolice.on.ca/mental-health-strategy-implementation/