How police respond to a mental health crisis

A recent police response to a stabbing in Del City is raising questions as to how police departments respond to a mental health crisis.

On this week's Eye On Safety, News 9's Lisa Monahan spoke to Del City Police Chief Loyd Berger to learn more about how his department responds.

Q: These types of calls can take an emotional toll on a person. How do you go about helping your staff in these types of calls?

A: You want to be in touch with them. You want to be and make sure you're talking to them. We're very lucky. Our city leaders have elected us to have a licensed counselor contracted, and that counselor comes out, she rides with officers, visits with officers regularly in the cars and in their work environment. [She] sees what they go through on a daily basis. She also visits with her dispatchers and 911 operators to see and to help where they can, just to get to know them and to see where they're at mentally, because they go through these things daily. So, try to stay on top of it, all we're trying to do. 

Q: They're in the car for ride-alongs? How important is that? 

A: That's absolutely critical because that's where the officer works, that's his office, that's where he's comfortable. That puts the counselor out there in his environment. So the counselor can actually see what he's doing on a daily basis and maybe try to engage and ask questions to be more proactive and see how things are going. And how some of these different calls are going to affect officers in different ways. 

Q: Officers and first responders take a lot of mental health calls, but they struggle with mental health challenges themselves. What are you and other police chiefs talking about on this?

A: It is a priority for all of us. Last week, we had a big conference, and that was the main topic for the week, talking about mental health. There are 911 dispatchers or officers, but ourselves as well, and being more proactive on how to stay on top of that.

Q: Is it happening more often, or are we just hearing about it? 

A: More often, we're hearing about it more often, but we're also more aware of it. If you go back in years past, it was expected and you just had to deal with it, and now it's it's come to light and we don't have to just deal with it. There's people that can help.

Q: What can the community do to support our first responders when it comes to mental health and the challenges they face?

A: Kind of understand where they're coming from when an officers are wrapped up in that situation, they are mentally focused on that situation, and a lot of people sometimes want to come out and ask questions right away or they want to, they want to be in there and they want to know things. We'll get to that, and we want to be as transparent as we can, but sometimes officers have to focus on what's in front of them. It's usually after that that they start decompressing and coming down off of that that we have to focus on them. So, any support they can give is great.