Pennsylvania legislators approve study to improve 911 response to MH crises

Abstract

Pennsylvania state legislators recently approved a study of how the 911 emergency call system can better assist people experiencing a mental health crisis, a measure championed by the family of Christian Hall ahead of the three‐year anniversary of his death the Lebanon, Pennsylvania, news outlet, LebTown, reported Jan. 2. The study will examine ways that emergency dispatchers operating the 911 system can send crisis responders, not police, to someone who calls in to report a mental health emergency. On Dec. 30, 2020, a Pennsylvania state police trooper shot and killed Christian Hall after the 19‐year‐old called 911 to report a potential suicide in progress. Before the shooting, police arrived to find Hall standing on a bridge and holding what they later determined to be a pellet gun. Authorities at the time said the shooting was justified because the troopers feared for their lives. A Monroe County prosecutor called it a “classic suicide‐by‐cop scenario.” But a 2021 investigation by news agency Spotlight PA and NBC News found that Hall had his hands in the air for 14 seconds before police shot and killed him. Meanwhile, the state's General Assembly has funded the new study as part of the recent deal that lawmakers struck to enact the state budget. The bill's language directs legislative commissions to examine the 911 system and how it might integrate into the new 988 Lifeline system, a suicide and crisis hotline launched nationwide in July 2022.