Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

911 calls often involve individuals in behavioral crisis, with accompanying risks of violence or otherwise harmful encounters between such individuals and first responders. It is well-understood that such calls involve select subpopulations of vulnerable individuals who suffer from severe mental illness, often referred to in the field as “high users” or “frequent flyers” of emergency services. Analysis of emergency response data indicates that high-frequency locations, or “hotspots”, are also an important component of such emergency service use. This mixed-method analysis explores whether such hotspot locations account for a disproportionate amount of emergency service responses and discusses accompanying policy and service implications for law enforcement, medical, and social service responses.