EDITORIAL: In a hopeful development, police departments are learning new skills to keep the mentally ill out of jail
Buffalo News (NY)Jul 06, 2015
That may be changing as police departments acknowledge the unwanted reality of this dynamic and seek training to avoid what can become violent confrontations and, instead of criminalizing mental illness, to find a way to provide the care individuals may require.
It's a big step, and one for which police departments should be congratulated. It may be a little like asking soldiers to be peacekeepers or nation builders -- that is, taking on tasks that radically diverge from their traditional missions -- but the fact is that police and people with mental illnesses cannot avoid each other and, often, criminal charges are both inappropriate and damaging.
The number of interactions between police and mentally ill people has become an especially serious matter because of the state policy of deinstitutionalizing patients in mental health hospitals. The plausible theory behind the policy was that many patients could be treated more effectively and at less cost by moving them into the community, where a network of caregivers would help meet their needs.
The problem was,
It's been a problem for years, but police departments -- including some in
Police may still use jail as a stopgap to prevent a dangerous situation from becoming tragic, but the ultimate goal is to connect people directly to appropriate mental health services. It seems to be working in
This is a hopeful development and, once again, it shows
In a way, the training in crisis intervention is a throwback for police who, in decades past, were seen as community fixtures. The "friendly cop on the beat" may be a cliche, but like most cliches, it is one that springs from a kernel of truth.
Policing is a difficult job and one that, mishandled, can bring disastrous consequences. Many departments and officers, including some in
But programs such as those undertaken by
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