I’d like to address my apprehension regarding advocacy for welfare checks. No, not government entitlements paid to people who are unemployed, though I have legitimate concerns concerning those as well. Rather, what I’m addressing herein relates to what one source describes thusly:
A welfare check, also known as a wellness check, is when police stop by a person’s home to make sure they are okay. Requests for welfare checks are made by friends, family, and neighbors, typically after someone unexpectedly stops answer their phone or getting in touch with others.
In the Marine Corps, my job was military police (MP). Aside from responding to domestic disturbance calls, welfare checks were a routine aspect of my duties.
According to one source, “If law enforcement receives no response during a wellness check after knocking on the subject’s door, they are lawfully able to search about the subject’s property, as applicable by law.” This matter raises a number of constitutional questions.
However, the current post isn’t intended to challenge the legitimacy of law enforcement officer (LEO) or community assistance duties in regard to welfare checks. Rather, my apprehension stems from personal experience as an MP and other observations which cast the shadow of doubt on welfare checks.
In specific, one source reports, “Sometimes, the very people whose welfare is in question become victims of police brutality. In the worst scenarios, these victims suffer fatalities,” while providing a number of actual scenarios on the source website of welfare checks gone wrong.
Similarly, when serving as an MP, I witnessed welfare checks result in the excessive use of force and questionable apprehensions more times than I care to admit. In fact, I was the subject of frequent welfare check abuse from other MPs during a year of ostensibly targeted harassment from my command.
It didn’t matter what answers were provided to MP questions, I could be placed in handcuffs and transported to my commanding officer’s place of business or the brig under the guise of “detainment,” supposedly for my own welfare. Frighteningly, some of these checks occurred at nighttime when I was asleep.
Understandably, an individual can quickly excuse my anecdotal evidence as unrepresentative of the experiences for other people. After all, for all the reader is aware, I have some sort of mentality aligning with “ACAB” (all cops are bastards). I assure the reader this isn’t the case.
Rather, I invite the reader to consider what one Johns Hopkins source from March 2024 reports:
A new study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions and Vanderbilt University found that an average of 1,769 people were injured annually in police shootings from 2015 to 2020, 55 percent of them or 979 people, fatally. The study covered a total of 10,308 incidents involving shootings by police.
As a former LEO, I’m unsurprised at the reported data. When on patrol as an MP, I never knew what awaited me behind the doors of barracks rooms, base housing, or other facilities. That was in a regulated environment, unlike that in which civilian and other LEOs function.
Nevertheless, I was amazed to learn that the Johns Hopkins source further reported:
The analysis found that overall, when injuries occurred, police responses initiated by a call to emergency dispatchers were 46 percent more likely to end with a fatal shooting injury than incidents where an officer was already on scene. Calls to police to check on the well-being of individuals were 74 percent more likely to be associated with fatal injury than police responses to an incident where shots had already been fired. This includes wellness checks that did not explicitly involve threats or harm before an encounter with police.
Imagine calling LEOs out of concern for a loved one and the call for help results in a fatal shooting of the person for whom you’re concerned. Now, consider that your loved one experiences mental, emotional, and behavioral health concerns.
The Johns Hopkins source states of this cohort:
Incidents in which mental or behavioral health conditions were named in association with the shooting comprised 23 percent (2,404) of all shootings by police. Injuries associated with behavioral health needs were more likely to be fatal. Sixty-seven percent (1,611) of all shootings by police involving someone suffering from a mental or behavioral health episode were fatal.
Well over half of the people experiencing mental illness or disorders – and who have untreated or unmanaged symptoms which result in episodic dysfunction and LEO interaction – are reportedly shot to a fatal degree. This begs the question as to whose welfare is paramount for these calls.
Rather than subjectively prescribing what I think should, must, or ought to be done to mitigate risk associated with welfare checks – or controversially demanding that no one must call LEOs to check on anyone’s well-being – I have no meaningful remedies to offer. I wish I did.
Regarding this matter, I see opposing sides of an argument. First, I understand the role of LEOs and how failure to respond to welfare checks in the role of community assistance could result in litigation. Who wants or needs that burden hanging over one’s head?
Likewise, the not too infrequent result of a completed suicide or brutal homicide may result if police fail to respond. That, too, comes with its own degree of difficulty. As well, some LEOs may generally care about the well-being of a person in need, so welfare checks may ease one’s mind.
Second, I understand the role of a friend, family member, loved one, or other concerned individual who initiates a welfare check. Aside from the burdensome matters LEOs face, people who fail to check in on their loved ones may experience difficulty accepting unpleasant outcomes.
Third, I understand the role of one who’s the subject of a welfare check. Perhaps the individual is in an actual crisis during which all coping strategies have failed to reduce distress. It may be nice knowing that others care enough to initiate a welfare check in such circumstances.
Also, such action may be perceived as an unwanted or unnecessary step that could result in a fatal shooting by LEOs. As outlined herein, this isn’t a farfetched notion. Imagine failing to come to the door and LEO breaching the entrance and shooting you dead.
Therefore, the subject of a welfare check may want to be left alone – even if this course of action results in a self-determined, autonomous decision which isn’t appreciated by one’s loved ones. A “my body, my choice” mantra somehow falls flat whenever involuntary welfare checks are enacted.
Lastly, I understand my role as a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and Licensed Clinical Social Worker operating in the State of Texas. According to Texas Department of Health Services 530.003, I’m supposed to call 911 and request a mental health officer in certain cases.
Regarding a behavioral health clinic at which I once worked, LEOs partnered with LPCs for specialty training related to welfare checks. After I left the agency, police reportedly began patrolling with LPCs as a means to fulfill crisis intervention team-specific engagement.
Across the nation, similar measures have resulted in social workers riding along with LEOs in response to crisis calls. From a person perspective, I don’t want any of these individuals responding to my home. Not a single one.
As such, I’ve let those individuals within my close circle know that welfare checks aren’t appropriate in reference to our relationship. As this healthy boundary has been established, it’ll subsequently be reinforced.
Whatever option the reader has in mind for one’s own care, I invite people to use open, honest, and vulnerable communication with their loved ones in a similar manner to how I communicated with my inner circle – whether to or not to rely on welfare checks.
Although I’ve not provided substantive answers to the complex system issue of welfare checks, I hope to have raised awareness about this topic. Now, I leave it up to the reader to further contemplate the matter.
If you’re looking for a provider who works to help you understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life—helping you to sharpen your critical thinking skills, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.
As a psychotherapist, I’m pleased to help people with an assortment of issues ranging from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.
At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply helping you to feel better, I want to help you get better!
Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW
Photo credit (edited), fair use
References:
Bloomberg School of Public Health. (2024, March 15). Study of fatal and nonfatal shootings by police reveals racial disparities, dispatch risks. Johns Hopkins University. Retrieved from https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2024/study-of-fatal-and-nonfatal-shootings-by-police-reveals-racial-disparities-dispatch-risks
Freepik. (n.d.). Hand drawn policeman silhouette illustration [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/hand-drawn-policeman-silhouette-illustration_136956961.htm#fromView=search&page=7&position=44&uuid=1e044701-3d53-48ad-92e4-0563fffd1144
Hollings, D. (2023, August 30). Boundary setting. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/boundary-setting
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Hollings, D. (2022, March 15). Disclaimer. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/disclaimer
Hollings, D. (2023, September 8). Fair use. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/fair-use
Hollings, D. (2023, October 12). Get better. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/get-better
Hollings, D. (n.d.). Hollings Therapy, LLC [Official website]. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/
Hollings, D. (2023, September 19). Life coaching. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/life-coaching
Hollings, D. (2023, March 21). Matching bracelets. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/matching-bracelets
Hollings, D. (2024, May 17). Open, honest, and vulnerable communication. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/open-honest-and-vulnerable-communication
Hollings, D. (2022, October 7). Should, must, and ought. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/should-must-and-ought
Hollings, D. (2024, April 10). Welcome to complex systems. Hollings Therapy, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.hollingstherapy.com/post/welcome-to-complex-systems
Law Dictionary, The. (n.d.). What is a police welfare check? Black’s Law Dictionary. Retrieved from https://thelawdictionary.org/article/what-is-a-police-welfare-check/
Meadow, R. (2023, October 5). What is a welfare check? Police Brutality Center. Retrieved from https://policebrutalitycenter.org/what-is-a-welfare-check/
Texas Department of State Health Services. (n.d.). 530.003 How to deal with clients who threaten to harm themselves or others. Retrieved from https://www.dshs.texas.gov/hivstd/policy/policies/530-003
Wikipedia. (n.d.). Wellness check. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellness_check
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