Column: Do we ask police to do too much? Daniel Prude case forces questions about mental health care
Chicago TribuneSep 04, 2020
Shocking video of a Black Chicago man naked, handcuffed and losing consciousness at the hands of white police officers in
Are we asking our police officers to do too much?
We are certain to hear the question come up in the case of seven
Police body camera video shows Prude complying with police orders to lie prone, still naked, and continuing to talk semi-coherently to the officers, who put a fabric “spit bag” over his head (used when a detainee is spitting continuously at officers). He vomits and loses consciousness. He died seven days later in a hospital after his family allowed him to be taken off life support.
It is easy to note similarities between this tragedy and the death of
Video of Floyd’s death touched off nationwide protests and a historic racial reckoning that continues in many American corporations and institutions, including sports teams and even newsrooms.
But the death of Prude, in my view, also highlights the need for a reckoning of another sort: Are we asking too much of our police officers?
Unlike the Floyd video’s graphic depiction of what appears to me to be a homicide in broad daylight, the Prude video might simply and tragically show some well-intentioned officers who were in over their heads on a cold night in
No, I’m not trying to make excuses or prejudge whatever legal action might be taken by prosecutors or Prude’s family. But as our society grapples with today’s super-heated calls to improve policing, you don’t have to be a “defund the police” radical to see the beefing up of social services as a very good way to support the police by helping them to focus more on law enforcement.
Four years ago, when Chicago’s new police Superintendent
“We’re asking cops to do too much in this country,”
He was being honest, and he’s run into similar frustrations in
Coincidentally, two
“As a society we need to focus not only on making sure police don’t do the wrong thing or right thing,”
Discussing a case such as Daniel Prude’s, Pollack observed, we should ask: Do we know social workers, mental health professionals and others who can play a part in such episodes so police can focus on public safety?
Indeed, social service experts tell me that people who know someone with mental health issues too often call 911 when a nonprofit agency like NAMI can offer better nonemergency assistance.
Unfortunately, in
And when people who need help fall through safety nets like that, Pollack said, “Police very often become the public face of failures that occurred in less visible systems.”
I’m still an advocate for police accountability as they pursue their duty to serve and protect the public. But sometimes, as Brown has said in
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