Monday night during the first Presidential Debate, Hilary Clinton called for federal intervention in providing local law enforcement with the appropriate training to work with those suffering from a mental illness.
“Mental health is one of the biggest concerns,” Clinton said. “Because now police are having to handle a lot of really difficult mental health problems on the street.They want support, they want more training, they want more assistance. And I think the federal government could be in a position where we would offer and provide that.”
Lubbock Police Chief Greg Stevens talked about the same issue several weeks ago at a Community Engagement Forum.
Lieutenant Ray Mendoza, public information officer for LPD, said our department realized mental health was going to be an issue, years ago when the state started making budget cuts. Now they require their officers to complete 40 hours of mental health training.
“We got together with all the mental health professionals around town,” Lt. Mendoza said. “We came up with a course that we could instruct with our officers, basically how to recognize symptoms and more importantly how to interact with them without having to resort to any kind of use of force.”
Most officers complete training while in the academy, others take the course while completing annual training to keep their commission.
Lt. Mendoza said officers have already begun to use their training while on patrol. While a patrol officer might encounter more people with mental illness than a detective, all officers need to be prepared for any kind of situation.
“First and foremost it is to recognize what kind of situation the officer is getting immediately involved in,” Lt. Mendoza said. “And so if he can recognize any kind of symptoms someone is exhibiting mental health illness then that right there automatically the officers can take a different approach.”
