State Terror is a primary theme on this show – often emphasizing the myriad things that go wrong when cops enter a situation they are not built for, trained for, or even wanting to engage in. One of those situations is mental health crisis. Around fifty percent of all folks murdered by law enforcement are physically disabled or experience mental health issues. When those issues intersect with Black bodies – as we saw with the police killing of Sonia Massey for example – the encounters are too often fatal. A new report shows that, beyond the incidents in which policing leads to the death of individuals dealing with mental health crises, use-of-force experiences are extremely high among people interacting with police while experiencing a mental health issue, and that number is significantly higher for Black men in particular. Our guests today are two of the journalists behind that new report. Josh McGhee is an investigative reporter covering the intersection of criminal justice and mental health with an emphasis on public records and data reporting. He is the Chicago Bureau Chief for MindSite News, a nonprofit journalism organization focused on mental health. Audrey Azzo is a project manager, researcher and investigative reporter, focused on data driven reporting on human rights abuses.

You can read the MindSight report here: https://mindsitenews.org/2025/01/31/police-use-of-force-mental-health/

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The post Tracking Police Use-of-Force in Mental Health Calls w/ Josh McGhee & Audrey Azzo appeared first on KPFA.