Researchers, through a recently conducted study, have found that people battling with mental illness are at higher chances of being killed by police. The findings were released in a report by the Virginia-based Treatment Advocacy Center.

Co-author of the report and the executive director of the Treatment Advocacy Center, John Snook, said the problem here lies in the training given to police, also lack of treatment for those with mental illness.

According to the report released on Thursday, people with mental illnesses do not get treatment until their behavior attracts the attention of police.

Snook said, “If this were any other medical condition, people would be up in arms. What we need to do is treat the person before the police are ever called. This is a mental illness, but we respond by calling the police and arresting a person”.

According to the report, almost 8 million people in the United States are battling with a serious mental illness like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. It was also found that half of the patients do not take or receive any medication or care.

Snook said in a statement that there is no complete and reliable statistics on police shooting. He said he has asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) pledged this week to revamp its system for tracking police shootings.

He hopes that the correct database on these shootings will help them count how many of the incidents involved mental illness.