NAMI North Carolina Workshop to Focus on Law Enforcement Response to Mentally Ill People in Crisis

News Release

Workshop to Focus on Law Enforcement Response to Mentally Ill People in Crisis

North Carolina ‘Ripe’ for Community Programs

Released April 2, 1998

More than a decade ago, police officers responding to a disturbance call in Memphis, Tenn., shot and killed a mentally ill man who threatened them with a knife. Community outrage over the incident was swift and strong, according to Lt. Sam Cochran of the Memphis Police Department.

“The community was enraged,” said Cochran. “Many people thought the situation should have been handled very differently.”

The city’s response to the shooting resulted in an innovative program that has since become a model for communities seeking a better way to deal with mentally ill people in crisis. Tomorrow afternoon, Cochran will tell a group of North Carolinians how they can start similar programs of their own.

Cochran is one of 20 speakers and panelists slated to participate in “New Frontiers in Treatment and Research,” the spring conference of the North Carolina Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NC AMI). The conference will be held April 3 and 4 at the Holiday Inn in Research Triangle Park.

At the heart of the Memphis program is an elite group of 165 specially-trained police officers who make up the department’s Crisis Intervention Team (CIT). Cochran, who was among the first group of officers trained for the team, now heads the Memphis initiative.

Police Officers ‘in Crisis’

“Even before the incident in ’87, members of the Memphis Alliance for the Mentally Ill realized police officers responding to these crisis calls were in as much of a crisis as their loved ones,” said Cochran. “They were advocating for change, but change wasn’t coming very quickly until the community outcry over the shooting made it a political issue.”

Cochran said the volume of calls to the Memphis Police Department from family members of mentally ill people in crisis has increased steadily since the CIT program began in 1988. Families tend to involve police earlier, too. “Before the CIT program, families were reluctant to call the police because they didn’t know what to expect, and our officers often came into the situation with a maximum level of fear and misunderstanding,” he said. “With CIT training, our officers are much more knowledgeable, and that makes them much more confident. That informed, understanding approach has a lot to do with promoting a good outcome for the call.”

“What families with mentally ill relatives are most concerned about, and the reason many of them hesitate to call police into a crisis-they’re afraid their family member or someone else will be hurt or killed during a police intervention,” said Beth Melcher, Ph.D., executive director of NC AMI. “Unfortunately, that happens all too often.”

‘Mental Illness is Not a Crime’

Today the Memphis Police Department receives an average of nearly 20 calls per day involving a mentally ill person. In response, the dispatcher sends the closest CIT officer to the scene. Team members from each precinct are available 24 hours a day.

Before being sent on calls involving a mentally ill person in crisis, CIT officers take a 40-hour course developed jointly by the police department, the Memphis Alliance for the Mentally Ill, area mental health care providers and researchers at the University of Memphis and the University of Tennessee. “The course helps officers understand that mental illness is not a crime, but a disease,” said Cochran.

“People in a psychological crisis are not thinking and feeling the same way other people do. That’s the nature of their illness,” explained Melcher. “If police arrive with sirens wailing and guns drawn and try to reason with or subdue someone who is extremely paranoid and frightened, it’s not going to work.

“But if the officers at the scene understand mental illness and know how to help the person in crisis feel calm and safe, the situation has a much better chance for a good outcome.”

Officers Need Better Training and Support

The need among police officers for better training and community support of their efforts to deal with mentally ill people in crisis is widespread and well documented.

According to Randy Borum, a clinical and forensic psychologist at Duke University Medical Center, nearly 60 percent of police officers surveyed in one study said they had handled at least one call involving a mentally ill person in the past month. More than 40 percent said they had handled more than one such call during the previous month.

In spite of the frequency and potential risks involved in these calls, Cochran said most law enforcement agencies fail to provide officers the training they need. “Police departments haven’t had the resources to train their officers, and their communities haven’t developed the right kind of delivery system for mental health care services,” he said.

“For a program like the one in Memphis to succeed, mental health care services have to be very user-friendly for the officer,” said Borum, who was a police officer before he became a psychologist. “In most communities, police officers get tied up on these calls and end up spending several hours babysitting in an emergency room or waiting for a health care worker to arrive. The most expedient thing an officer can do in that situation is make an arrest and get back on the road. That’s why these programs aren’t just about training. Training is important, but it’s probably less critical than the supporting infrastructure.”

North Carolina ‘Ripe’ for Crisis Intervention Programs

According to Melcher, recent changes in community mental health services make North Carolina “ripe” for community programs to help law enforcement agencies work more safely and effectively with mental health care providers to meet the special needs of mentally ill people and their families.

“Most North Carolina communities haven’t had the capacity to support law enforcement agencies in this type of program, so until now, there’s been little reason to try to develop them,” she explained. “But within the past year, we’ve started requiring our mental health programs to provide 24-hour emergency capacity. With that resource in place, communities can work together to help law enforcement agencies respond to these situations more appropriately.”

“In communities where you have good, integrated treatment resources with good back-up from family members or some type of outreach program, a CIT unit can make a significant positive impact,” said Cochran. “But it needs to be an aggressive effort. Everyone involved has to take responsibility to see that the system works. Everyone has to be accountable for their performance within the system. If you have responsibility and accountability, a program like this can really make the quality of service and the quality of life in a community much better.”

Cochran will present his program on the Memphis Police Department’s Crisis Intervention Team Friday afternoon, April 3, from 1:45 to 3:15 at the Research Triangle Park Holiday Inn. The “New Frontiers in Treatment and Research” conference is open to the public, with one-day and two-day registrations still available.