Mental health training touted for law enforcement

Talk about it

There’s not just a stigma attached to mental illness. It’s beyond that.

“I think the real word is prejudice, but we don’t like that word,” said Sam Cochran, a retired police major from Memphis, Tenn.

Cochran spoke to more than 170 attorneys, law enforcement officers, mental health advocates and others Thursday about a program he founded that trains police to deal with the mentally ill.

Called the Crisis Intervention Team, Cochran’s project teaches officers to recognize situations where mental health is a factor and to prevent those situations from escalating.

“That’s one of my rules of law enforcement,” said Moorhead Police Chief David Ebinger. “It’s supposed to get better when we show up, not worse,”

The idea is to get help for people who need it, avoiding expensive and fruitless drains on jails and hospital emergency rooms, Cochran said. More than 600 police departments across the U.S. use the program.

The training helps police limit minor charges that are often given to mentally ill offenders, Cochran said. In 2008, of the 4,356 mental health commitment transports by police in Memphis, only 121 led to charges.

“We’re trying to give officers a choice,” he said.

Many who are mentally ill should be diverted from jail, said Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney. “Otherwise, we’re just a warehouse for people.”

Laney’s office, sponsor of Cochran’s visit through a federal grant, already has a post-booking mental health program. In 2009, through September, 1,066 detainees received one-on-one mental health assessments at the county jail. In 2005, only 90 jail inmates were assessed.

Now the sheriff wants to see more officers get Crisis Intervention Team training, expanding the focus on mental health from the jail to the streets.

In Moorhead, 17 of the city’s 53 officers already have gone through the 40-hour training program. It’s costly and time-consuming, Ebinger said, but it’s worth it to prevent the downside.

Ebinger helped CIT training take hold as a police supervisor in Little Rock, Ark., but it came after two separate incidents of cops fatally shooting people who had mental health issues.

Eventually, Ebinger said he’d like to see as many as 75 percent of Moorhead’s officers get CIT training. But one of the key elements of Cochran’s system would still be missing – an always-open assessment center to handle those not suited for a hospital or jail.

Having that resource is vital, Cochran said.

“It’s not a law enforcement program, it’s a community program,” he said.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Dave Roepke at (701) 241-5535

Tags: cass county, mental illness, news, crime, moorhead, police, communities, courts, fargo, health