In a bid to reduce conflicts and better help mentally ill people, Palo Alto police officers completed an innovative training program Wednesday, Sept. 19.
The 40-hour training is designed to help officers recognize signs of a mental health crisis and reduce the police use of force. Officers gain trust and cooperation through more gentle persuasion than by means of handcuffs and a baton, Lt. Zach Perron said.
“Officers are often trained to take immediate action. We have lots of tools on our belt. We are entrusted to use our tools. Cops don’t like to use force. They would much rather use their mouth,” he said.
Perron said it is important to change the perception of the officer’s intention when arriving at a crisis. Using force is an often-erroneous public perception of an officer’s job, he said. When he asks school children what they think is the most important part of his uniform, they always say a gun, a Taser or a baton, he added.
Interactive video simulation training teaches how to talk to mentally ill people by having the officer speak with a computer-controlled actor in a variety of plausible scenarios. The ultimate goal is to get the person to a safe place where they can receive help, Perron said.
The chances an officer will encounter multiple persons in mental health crises are high. In 2009 45 million U.S. adults were diagnosed with a serious mental illness. Santa Clara County had 4,000 calls for service in one year that were classified as someone who was in some form of mental health emergency, he said. In contrast, the amount of training officers receive is minimal.
“The California Police Academy lasts up to 1000 hours. The academy also includes laws, search and seizure, communication techniques, first aid, and a myriad of other topics that are critical for a new officer to learn and master. But only six hours are mandated by the state on encounters with people with a mental health issue,” he said.
The new program was developed by the Santa Clara County Health Department with a $140,000 state- and county-funded grant. It was a collaborative effort that involved County Health, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, faith and youth groups and mentally ill persons and their families, Perron said. Palo Alto police Chief Dennis Burns was on the original guiding board and pushed for Palo Alto police to be among the first to be trained.
The program is run by three former Palo Alto police members who are now law enforcement liaisons for the county Mental Health Department: former chief Pat Dwyer, former captain Kathy McKenna and former sergeant Dave Newman. Palo Alto Lt. Robert Bonilla heads the city’s training programs.
Officers are tested on how well they interact with the subjects and are able to de-escalate the encounter. McKenna works the laptop-based programming to alter the response of actors simulating mentally ill persons on a projector screen. Based on what kinds of questions an officer asks, McKenna has the power to make the encounter fruitful or a misery of negative responses, agitation or lack of cooperation.
During a demonstration for reporters, Sgt. Brian Philip responded to two 9-1-1 calls involving a mother whose depressed daughter was threatening to kill herself with a knife and a man with schizophrenia who seemed to be off his medication.
“Hi. My name is Brian, and I work for the Palo Alto Police Department,” Philip began by way of introduction, in a calm, even voice. Throughout both encounters, he asked open-ended questions, such as what the person might need, if he or she felt like harming him or her self or others and how he could help.
“You’ve got a knife in your hand and I can see that. Would you mind putting the knife down so I can give you some assistance?” he asked the girl.
Huddled in the back of a pickup truck with a 12-inch butcher knife, she refused his first request. But with gentle coaxing, Philip discovered that she had been taking an antidepressant that was not working. He offered to help her get one that would work for her if she put the knife down. Eventually she complied and slid out of the truck to go with him.
With the passage of state Assembly Bill 109, prisoners are being placed in county jails to alleviate overcrowding at state prisons. Many more parolees are also having sentences reduced and are back on the streets.
Philip said with an estimated 23 percent of all California prison inmates having a serious mental illness, some will eventually wind up encountering police. In turn, that will place more strain on police resources. But the training is also designed to get the person in crisis to resources that will help prevent additional encounters with police, Perron said.
About 250 officers have taken the training since this summer, including Campbell and Redwood City police departments and Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office investigators, he said.
It would be nice if the police kept records of their interactions with people they believe to be mentally ill. Media accounts of the tragic outcomes of some of these interactions remind us that that there are mentally ill people who often end up dead when they confront officers. Tracking these interactions would help to gauge the extent of mental illness in the general population.
More-facts, if the city council un-froze one of the police department dozen frozen positions maybe they could have someone track those stats for you.
Tracking this statistic is something that could be done with a data base query that would not take very long, if the police knew how to use computers. The Auditor’s SEA would be a good place to publish the stat, taking only a column to display the data.
But it’s doubtful that this will happen.
I am pretty sure that tracking police encounters with mentally ill would do nothing to gauge the extent in the general population, the majority who never have encounters with the police. That is why this will not happen.
> I am pretty sure that tracking police encounters with
> mentally ill would do nothing to gauge
And what makes you so sure?
If the police encounter someone whom they decide has mental problems, they will not probably call in County mental health resources, rather than referring the case to the DA for prosecution. Simply counting the number of referrals to mental health is all that is called for here.
they will not probably call->they will probably call
Maintaining these types of records is maintaining intelligence. Maintaining intelligence on people is illegal. As usual, people commenting on how police work should be done when people who are not involved in police work no nothing about how law enforcement works.
Simply counting the number of referrals is not what you originally stated. You said they should track interactions, which does not necessarily mean a referral. And either way it would still not help determine the extent of mental illness in the general population, just those that contact the police. (my original point, which you missed) The police do not diagnose people with mental problems, the mental health professionals do, rightly so. They are only being asked to recognize some of the indicators, as this story details, to hopefully reduce those violent encounters. I give them “kudos” for at least trying this training. A referral from a cop means that someone has a mental illness? You don’t think they know how to use computers, but you want them to make this diagnosis..? I don’t. Please check out NIMH.
> Maintaining these types of records is maintaining intelligence.
> Maintaining intelligence on people is illegal
How absurd. What laws can you cite that restrict the police from keeping records on their call outs?
The police maintain records on people who are arrested, and presumably they have the right to keep field reports that document interactions with people involved in situations where the police are called, for whatever reason, that were not arrested.
In this case, none of this information would be commonly considered as “intelligence” in the way that an “intelligence agency” might collect information–on people who have done nothing wrong.
But if you really believe that the police have no right to keep records–contact your local District Attorney and see what they have to say about the matter.
> And either way it would still not help determine the extent of
> mental illness in the general population, just those that
> contact the police
Mental illness is kind of a taboo area. Estimates of this malady in the general population are disturbingly high:
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/the-numbers-count-mental-disorders-in-america/index.shtml
Mental Disorders in America
Mental disorders are common in the United States and internationally. An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older — about one in four adults — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.1 When applied to the 2004 U.S. Census residential population estimate for ages 18 and older, this figure translates to 57.7 million people.2 Even though mental disorders are widespread in the population, the main burden of illness is concentrated in a much smaller proportion — about 6 percent, or 1 in 17 — who suffer from a serious mental illness.1 In addition, mental disorders are the leading cause of disability in the U.S. and Canada.3 Many people suffer from more than one mental disorder at a given time. Nearly half (45 percent) of those with any mental disorder meet criteria for 2 or more disorders, with severity strongly related to comorbidity.1
In the U.S., mental disorders are diagnosed based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV).4
++++
> about one in four adults — suffer from a
> diagnosable mental disorder in a given year
If this is true, then police agencies all over the US need to spend a considerable amount of time training to recognize these disorders, so that people who are “sick” are not wrongly accused of “crime”.
Of course, if the police find that they are not seeing the kinds of interactions that suggest that this 1 in 4 estimate is accurate, the folks at the National Institute of Mental health, and others, would be given a reality check for their estimation process.
Either way, it would pay for the police to track, and publish, this number so that the public can understand how large a problem people with mental health problems are for their local police agencies.
> Interactions vs referrals
Perhaps tracking interactions is not as effective as tracking referrals, since a police officer with a few hours training should only call for professional help. It would be highly likely for inexperience police officers to make the wrong call, producing inflated numbers for interactions with people showing mental health problems.
Either way, producing this information from computerized databases would be very simple.
Yes, this will definitely help Palo Alto since we now have the Opportunity Center with all the NON Palo Altans there that we now are helping with food, medication and lodging. They offer their meds to people at Lytton Plaza. So, the PAPD can help these people since they are SELLING their medications which makes them ‘off their meds’.
Alternately, I’m sure there are mentally ill residing in Palo Alto, and this can help them.
Here we go again:
“If this is true, then police agencies all over the US need to spend a considerable amount of time training to recognize these disorders, so that people who are “sick” are not wrongly accused of “crime”.”
–sometimes the presence of a mental disorder does not remove that person from any responsibility for a crime. But this is a much larger argument that is played out in the court, if relevant at all. And how do you know the police are not already taking measures you don’t always read about to combat this?
–What kind of “interactions” would suggest a 1 in 4 estimate is accurate? Violent ones, benign ones? How many interactions did you have today with people you did not know had a mental illness?
—Pay for the police to track? They already do with their records, you said it yourself. To prove they should take classes to recognize warning signs? Oh yeah, they are so says the article.
“It would be highly likely for inexperience police officers to make the wrong call, producing inflated numbers for interactions with people showing mental health problems.”
—So you are saying the data will be flawed. But you insist they track the flawed data. That will surely pay off.
Let’s just take this from the article and stop trying to tell others what they should do: Police are trying to better recognize symptoms to resolve conflicts with persons with mental illnesses in a positive, helpful manner with regards to the safety and well being of all.
Please….just stop…..
> And how do you know the police are not already taking measures
> you don’t always read about to combat this?
Good point. But why should the police to be open about this sort of police response to people with mental health problems? Transparency is a good thing, isn’t it?
> So you are saying the data will be flawed.
Never said that at all.
> But you insist they track the flawed data. That will surely pay off.
Depends. For starters, what makes you believe that data that might initially be in error can not be corrected as post-incident processing clarifies a given situation? This situation already exists with police data. A person is arrested, but no charges are brought because the police realize that this person is innocent. They will no doubt track/publish their arrests, but do not seem to publish the referrals to the DA’s Office. Once referred to the DA’s Office, some cases are dropped, and others are not proven at trial. So—the local agencies published number of arrests does not provide a complete picture of the effectiveness of the police. It is a metric for the activity of the police, however.
> and stop trying to tell others what they should do
> Please….just stop…..
These are suggestions about police transparency—nothing more. The only person “tell others what to do” seems to be you.
It’s astounding how anti-intellectual so many people in Palo Alto seem to be.
They should not use handcuffs. I felt so bad when they had to handcuffed my 13 years old daughter because she was suicidal. There should be another way. Also the neighbors saw when they took her out to the police cars in handcuffs. I felt so bad when I heard the sounds of the handcuffs clicking as they put it on her.
The Palo Alto Police and Fire Departments are the busiest public servants around and even as they rush around the city attending to all manner of crises and situations, they devote time and energy to doing an even better job. Thank you Chief Burns for having the wherewithal and the heart to recognize that the needs of those with mental health issues are different and thus need to be handled differently.
I empathize with the parent who was devastated when her distraught daughter was placed in handcuffs. Let’s hope that the increased awareness and training will reduce the instances when our loved ones in an extreme emotional state are treated like criminals at risk of self-harm and more like a person in emotional crisis.