Police mental health calls have nearly tripled since 2019
Calls coded Mental Health Call in the Police Incidents dataset rose from 803 in 2019 to 2,243 in 2025, a 2.8-fold increase.
Calls coded Mental Health Call in the Police Incidents dataset rose from 803 in 2019 to 2,243 in 2025, a 2.8-fold increase. The rise is steady rather than a single jump: 803 in 2019, 1,080 in 2020, 1,491 in 2021, 1,589 in 2022, 1,645 in 2023, 1,848 in 2024, 2,243 in 2025. Median monthly volume tracks the same path, from 67 calls a month in 2019 to 174 in 2025, so the annual totals are not driven by one unusual month. These calls are also a growing share of all recorded incidents, from 1.24% in 2019 to 2.41% in 2025. Through the first nine months of 2026 there have been 1,449 such calls at a median of 183 a month, the highest monthly rate in the eleven years on record. The dataset records that officers were dispatched to these calls; it does not describe what happened on arrival or what services the people involved received.