Erica Techo
Bobby Blankenship, police chief for the Dothan Regional Airport, discusses how a law enforcement officer should approach a situation involving an individual with mental illness.
Law enforcement officers from around Shelby County gathered at the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office training center to learn more about mental health and disabilities during a crisis intervention training program.
The four-day program took place from Oct. 11-15, and each day had a different focus and different lessons. It was a collaborative effort between Auburn University at Montgomery, the Alabama chapter of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) and the probate court, said Allison Boyd, who is the mental health program coordinator and legal council for the local probate judge.
“I just think it [crisis intervention training] is another tool for them … it’s something where they have a much better understanding of the population they’re serving,” Boyd said.
The training was free of charge to all officers and agencies participating thanks to a federal grant, Boyd said.
Day one of the program provided information on the signs, symptoms and treatment of mental illness to help officers better identify an individual with mental illness while they are in the field, Boyd said. The next day provided a more hands-on activity, during which officers wore headphones and listened to a recording intended to simulate the voices a person with schizophrenia might hear.
After listening to the “voices,” officers were asked to complete simple tasks such as recounting the date or president and completing a reading comprehension test.
“It was amazing … they could not do those very simple tasks,” Boyd said. “That was something I think they had a great experience with.”
Participating officers told Boyd the simulation helped them understand what individuals with schizophrenia may face.
On the third day of the program, officers re-entered the classroom to learn more about how they can handle interactions with individual with disabilities or mental illness specifically from a law enforcement standpoint.
Bobby Blankenship, police chief for the Dothan Regional Airport, reviewed signs and symptoms of different disabilities and mental illnesses and said after recognizing some of those signs in an individual, law enforcement officers should re-evaluate the situation, if possible.
“We need to change the path we’re going from the path of enforcement to the path of care,” he said.”
Blankenship also stressed that not all individuals with disabilities or mental illness are the same.
“If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person,” he said.
The fourth day of the program included a panel discussion that included individuals who have family members with mental illness. They gave tips to law enforcement officers on how they can approach a situation with those individuals, and some discussed their family member’s past encounters with law enforcement, Boyd said.
Boyd said going over these scenarios can help keep individuals with mental illness out of jail and instead, provide the help those individuals need. Officers can seek help through the probate court, which handles involuntary commitments. Those involuntary commitments can take the individual to a hospital, hold a hearing to determine if they should be put in an inpatient or outpatient program, and allow a way to manage them and ensure they are taking their medication, she said.
“I think it’s good to get the real information out there about what mental illnesses are,” Boyd said, adding that facts can help fight the stigma that prevents individuals from seeking help. Getting that help can be life changing for both the affected individual and their family, she said.
Alabaster officer Dave Carlington, who formerly retired from the Hoover Police Department, works with the COMPACT 2020 initiative and attended the CIT program. When he started working in law enforcement, most training happened on the job. Officers were given a gun, a car and a radio, he said, but they did not receive the “laser focusing” on specific parts of training.
As part of COMPACT 2020, Carlington said he believes the CIT program helps provide information on what he may encounter when doing compliance checks or working with families who have gone through the judicial system.
“It’s multi-faceted, what we’ll be doing,” he said, Carlington added that COMPACT 2020 aims to provide treatment and sponsors to individuals struggling with addiction, rather than just throw them back in jail.
“They don’t need to be there [in jail],” he said. “They need help.”
With the work he will do, the training during the four-day program was “golden,” he said, and further exemplifies how law enforcement is no longer a job — it’s a profession that requires continued education, careful training and a passion.
“It is phenomenal how far it has come,” he said.
