Police officers function both as law enforcement officers and as peace officers. Their work involves extensive discretionary decisionmaking. They use discretion when they decide on one of the three basic ways of handling mentally disturbed citizens in the community: hospitalization, arrest, or informal disposition. In cases in which the individual remains violent and seriously disturbed, psychiatric hospitalization or criminal arrest are usually the only choices. However, a recent study by the Police Executive Research Forum has confirmed that police agencies are not adequately preparing their officers to deal with mentally ill persons. Therefore, actions are needed to improve training and supervision in this area as well as to improve the crucial relationships between the police and mental health providers. 68 references