July 31, 2020
By Grace White
KHOU
https://www.khou.com/article/news/health/hpd-sees-increase-in-mental-health-calls-since-start-of-covid-19-pandemic/285-c7fdb1df-78c6-413b-b7ca-4870868891b0
HOUSTON — On the streets of Houston, fighting crime isn’t the only job police officers are doing these days.
“We can say we have seen an increase in mental health related calls for service to HPD,” Asst. Chief Wendy Baimbridge, with the Houston Police Department, said.
She said mental health calls are up 10% overall since the pandemic started. Specific calls like mental health related assaults with weapons are up 83%, suicides with a weapon up 40%, and mental health related disturbances with a weapon up 37%. Those numbers do not represent the actual number of suicides, only the number of calls coming into police.
