The Exponent


02-20-2004	Previous edition: 02-19-2004

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Special police unit trains officers to deal with mentally ill people

By Peter Schu
Staff Writer

If a man held one of his multiple personalities hostage with a gun, most ordinary police officers would be hesitant to take any type of action.

However, a grassroots movement across the nation is beginning to train police officers to deal with exactly this sort of situation, where the symptoms of a person’s mental illness are mistaken for unwarranted aggression or criminal activity.

The movement began in Memphis in 1988 when a man with a mental illness was shot and killed because of a misunderstanding related to his illness-influenced actions.

The product of that tragedy was the model for the Crisis Intervention Team, which is now employed by more than 50 police forces nationwide, including those at Purdue, Lafayette, West Lafayette and the Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Department.

During the local unit’s training, Sgt. Lesley Bryan of the Purdue Police Department had an opportunity to go to Memphis to see the nation’s first team in action.

"Going on a call with the Memphis unit and seeing them resolve what could have been a suicide was a really impressive and inspiring experience to bring back to the local unit," said Bryan. "But the most valuable part of the training was working with the mentally ill members of the local community who were eager to help our cause."

On Feb. 6, the local unit became only the third certified in Indiana, graduating 24 officers from four police departments and four security personnel from local hospitals after a weeklong intensive training session administered by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

These officers will be dispatched whenever a 911 call is received involving someone with a mental illness to prevent any possible situation from escalating into violence or pressed charges.

"This really is an elite group of officers. It requires a lot of patience and sympathy," said Bryan.

This group was just the first of many to graduate. In additional training sessions that followed, the local departments set the goal of graduating 20 percent of their officers into the crisis intervention program.

The local inception of the team model was prompted by an increase in 911 calls threatening suicide and the encouragement of the West Central Indiana branch of the alliance for the mentally ill.

Cecilia Weber, the executive director of the alliance, stresses that the goal of the program to prevent needless violence and keep the mentally ill out of already-overcrowded jails, in good hands.

"This is what we call a pre-jail diversion program to avoid unnecessary incarceration. Oftentimes, the mentally ill have little or no money and the judicial processes can become very complicated and taxing. Our job is to prevent that mess and make sure no one gets hurt when there is a situation," Weber said.

While the program will surely improve the situation of the mentally ill nationally and locally, it may make pleading insanity in court cases less of a common occurrence.

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Special police unit trains officers to deal with mentally ill people

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