What to Do When Someone Is Having a Mental Health Crisis on the Street
brokeassstuart.com
brokeassstuart.com
It's a sad commentary when the police can't do police work without killing the people they are supposed to be protecting.
The other obvious choice I would think would be to call the paramedics! Is there some reason that a person having this kind of a crisis shouldn't have an ambulance called?
In a lot of jurisdictions you'll get both with the same call if it's a mental-health crisis. The dividing line between what's a "police" matter and what's an "EMS" matter varies. Generally in the US (at least in places where I've lived), EMS can offer to take you to the hospital, but, broadly, they can't take someone who doesn't want to go. Compelling someone to go to the hospital who doesn't want to go is often a judicial matter devolved to the police, with all the attendant problems (e.g. high-velocity lead poisoning) that involving the police carries.
What we really need more widely in the US are some sort of cross-functional "mental health crisis responders" who are mainly medical (rather than law-enforcement) personnel, but are given just enough of the necessary police powers to legally compel a person presenting a threat to themselves or others to go to the hospital if it's necessary. That would allow the police to remain uninvolved in a large percentage of routine mental-health emergencies.
It is ironic that the movie / Broadway trope of having "men in white suits with nets" come after you if you start acting funny is actually better than the current situation that exists, where you run a good risk of being shot with impunity.