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Dealing with mentally ill people is focus of police training exercise

Thirty-six officers from across Kent County participated in a program to help them better identify people in the middle of a mental health crisis. So far, 130 officers countywide have received the training.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Helping police identify someone who is experiencing a mental breakdown and how to properly respond was the focus of a training program that got underway this week in Kent County.

Some three dozen officers from departments across Kent County participated in the Crisis Intervention Team Training Program. About 130 officers in Kent County have completed the program, which was launched last year.

“Crisis intervention training is giving officers the tools to recognize a person who may be suffering from a mental illness or a crisis in their life at that moment,’’ said Walker Police Sgt. Brandyn Heugel, who helped organize the local training session.

“This training is trying to give officers another way of dealing with that potentially violent subject,’’ Heugel said. “Is this person violent because they have a medication issue or because they have a mental disability or are they violent because that’s how they are?’’

Training took place at Resurrection Life Church, 5100 Ivanrest Avenue SW. The 32-hour program is modelled after one started in Memphis, Tenn. following a 1988 shooting involving a man with mental health and substance abuse issues. Instructors include mental health and addiction specialists.

Heugel said de-escalating a potentially volatile situation is a priority.

“De-escalation doesn’t always mean that we’re not going to use force, but the first line of defense with these situations, we want it to be a process of de-escalation,’’ she said.

The program provides officers with crisis intervention training so they are better equipped to deal with individuals with mental illness. Training goals include a reduction in the use of force, fewer arrests, fewer officer injuries, and fewer injuries to the person in crisis.

“We’re very interested in having police do very humane recognition of the people that are sick and treat them as though they are not criminals,’’ said Tom Dooley, a board member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Kent County.

Similar programs are underway in Kalamazoo, St. Joseph, Oakland, Eaton, Clinton and Ingham counties.

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