Around 10 percent of people charged with assaulting a law enforcement officer in Virginia over a nearly decade-long period had a history of mental illness, according to data from University of Virginia researchers presented Tuesday to the state’s Behavioral Health Commission.

Altogether, between 2009 and 2018, a total of 2,213 people with a history of mental illness were later charged with assault against law enforcement. Those individuals spent an average of 94.8 days in jail, longer than the 79-day average for subjects without a background of civil commitment.

Experts say those numbers almost certainly undercount such situations, given that the study only captured people with a record of being issued an emergency custody or temporary detention order — two types of civil commitments typically issued in crisis situations.

But currently, the data offer one of the only ways of assessing how frequently mental health plays a role in what are often non-serious assaults on police and other law enforcement officials, said Heather Zelle, the associate director of mental health policy research for UVA’s Institute of Law, Psychiatry, & Public Policy.

“The hope is that it gives a sense of why we might want to consider policy changes,” she said after the meeting. “We wanted to get a read on the prevalence and highlight that this is affecting plenty of people, even in cases where those charges aren’t necessarily appropriate.”

It’s not the first time experts have raised concerns with Virginia’s laws involving attacks on law enforcement.

Zelle said her team began collecting the data after clinicians on staff noticed a growing number of patients charged with felonies despite having no prior criminal history. In some cases, police were called for a welfare check but ended up arresting the individual for assault or battery against an officer.

In Virginia, those charges can apply even in minor incidents with no serious injuries.

Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, unsuccessfully filed legislation to eliminate the offense as an automatic felony in 2020 and 2021, saying the law disproportionately affected Virginians with mental illness. During the latest General Assembly session, Del. Jeff Bourne, D-Richmond, sponsored a related bill that would have prohibited officers from filing assault and battery charges against individuals going through a mental health crisis if those officers were responding to a call for service.

A House committee killed Bourne’s legislation, but advocates are still calling for a change to Virginia’s laws. 

“We’re not saying these charges can’t ever be used, but we’re really trying to prevent these cases where everyone sits down and kind of realizes, ‘Hey, this is wrong,’ Zelle said.

(Editor’s Note: This article was edited and published with permission by the Virginia Mercury.)